Apple's heavily hyped iPad went on sale Saturday in the United States with excited customers crowding to get their hands on what some see as a major new step in the digital revolution. The Apple flagship store in New York greeted hundreds of people who had waited since just after dawn with high fives, whooping, and a New Year's Eve-style countdown.
Many of the shoppers were from outside the United States, which is initially the only country to sell the touch-screen tablet, retailing at between 499 and 829 dollars. Adi Thomas, who flew in from Australia, said the iPad was "slim, beautiful."
"I really want to get it home and play with it," Thomas, 38, said. Dutch IT consultant Hans Schoenmakers, 49, proudly declared himself the first person from the Netherlands to own the shiny gadget. "It's better than I thought. I will use it for email while on the couch - and Internet and reading books," he said. There were scenes of nearly hysterical enthusiasm as dozens of Apple staff in matching blue T-shirts psyched themselves up before opening hour with rhythmic clapping and cheering.
Customers emerged from the glass-roofed store, holding their newly minted toys in front of the television news cameras like trophy winners. "I'm going to go home and play with iPad, not my girlfriend," announced a young man named Randy.
Apple calls the tablet "revolutionary" and the Wall Street Journal in a sneak preview said the device is a "game changer" that could topple the laptop and "change portable computing profoundly." Whether reality will match the advertising hype - fuelled by wall-to-wall media coverage of the days leading up to the launch - is the soon-to-be answered question.
Despite the fervent reception at Apple stores, veterans of the original iPhone launch said Saturday's event was relatively subdued. A meager crowd of only 15 took the ultimate step of camping outside the Manhattan store overnight.
Apple representatives would not comment on how sales were going. The 9.7-inch (24.6 centimeter) device allows users to watch video, listen to music, play games, surf the Web or read electronic books. Unlike a laptop, the keyboard is touch-screen, making for a far slimmer, lighter package. It starts up as easily as a phone, customers said, and has lightening-fast Internet access. In addition, the iPad also runs most of the 150,000 applications made for the iPod Touch and the iPhone.
The model that went on sale Saturday features Wi-Fi wireless connectivity, while a model offering both Wi-Fi and 3G cellular connectivity will appear late April. Among the many uses targeted by the iPad is changing the way that people get their news.
German TV journalist Richard Gutjhar, 36, said he hoped the multi-media device would bind together the increasingly fractured media market and help newspapers and other outlets collect revenue in an age where content circulates for nothing on the Internet. "I hope this will transform our work. I believe our work must be paid and if this will help, then that would be great," he said, after securing his small place in consumer history as the first person to exit the Apple store with a new iPad.
Comments
Comments are closed.