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Crowds snap up first Apple iPads

By Connie Guglielmo and Mina Kawai (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-05 09:53

People wait for the release of the iPad at an Apple store in San Francisco, California on Saturday.[Agencies]

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc's iPad tablet computer went on sale on Saturday, drawing crowds to stores across the United States, and rivaling the frenzy seen when the iPhone went on sale in 2007.

Hundreds of shoppers lined up to wait for stores to open at 9 am, though crowds didn't camp out for days this time, as they did when the iPhone debuted. Many of the buyers identified themselves as early adopters and Apple enthusiasts, making it harder to tell if the iPad will win over mainstream customers.

"I love it," said Jacob Arentoft, a 37-year-old digital business developer from Copenhagen. After exiting Apple's Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan, he unpacked the brand-new silver gadget and waved it at the crowd. "The size fits, the design fits, everything fits."

The iPad is Apple's bid to turn tablet computers into popular consumer devices, something rivals such as Microsoft Corp have failed to do. The product builds on the success of Apple's iPhone and iPod, staking out the middle ground between smartphones and laptop computers. Apple is betting the design is enticing enough that consumers are willing to pay a premium over low-cost notebooks. It starts at $499.

"It's ridiculously expensive, way overpriced," said Josh Klenert, a 36-year-old graphic designer, who still went ahead and bought one. Klenert, whose one-bedroom apartment in Tribeca has "more Macs than people", pre-ordered the iPad as soon as it was available and came down to Apple's SoHo store in New York to be one of the first to buy it.

'Sofa-based device'

"You may call it a dumb computer or a smart telephone - it's in between," said Klenert, who plans to use it for reading newspapers and magazines. "It's a unique, sexier device. More like a sofa-based device."

Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co, expects Apple to sell 200,000 to 300,000 iPads this weekend. The full-year sales may reach 7.1 million globally, according to ISuppli Corp.

Apple declined to comment, said Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for the Cupertino, California-based company.

Apple fans began lining up on Friday at Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs' hometown store in Palo Alto, California. More than 200 people were waiting before the store opened, and employees handed out Krispy Kreme doughnuts and coffee. The shoppers included tech blogger Robert Scoble, who was one of the first in line, and Bill Atkinson, author of Apple's MacPaint and MacWrite software programs for the first Macintosh computers.

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