AppleInsider Staff
After just 35 hours of preorder availability, Apple's online store on Saturday showed stock outs of the 16GB Wi-Fi only black and slate iPad mini, with the entry-level tablet joining all white and silver models which quickly sold out on launch day.
The Online Apple Store is now reflecting a two week delivery time for the smallest capacity black iPad mini, meaning the company has run through its initial supply as demand for the mid-size tablet continues.
When the device was announced on Tuesday, some speculated that the mini's relatively high price tag would dissuade consumers from purchasing the premium tablet, especially given similarly sized products from competitors like Amazon and Google are priced far below Apple's $329 cost of entry. However, when iPad mini preorders went live on Friday at 12:01 a.m. Pacific, it took mere minutes for all capacities of the white Wi-Fi only model to sell out.
It remains to be seen how the Wi-Fi + Cellular models have faired as those versions are set to ship in mid-November.
According to Apple design chief Jony Ive, the iPad mini condenses the features of a full-size iPad into small form factor, featuring a 7.9-inch display and thin 7.2-millimeter chassis that weighs only 0.68 pounds.
Amber Neely
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130 Comments
This is very interesting indeed since we haven't seen that with a new product from Apple in a long time. I wonder if the same people that claim that Apple is holding back on production to generate hype (instead of a sale) and claim that Apple is [i]big enough[/i] that it should have enough units available for every man, woman and child as soon as they go on sale regardless of the number of units being sold are going to be the same people that will inevitably be stating that Apple has lost its mojo, that the iPad mini is a flop, and that people simply don't want a hobbled, overpriced iPad when the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire are so much better.
They must've read my post in the other thread. Lol. Gotta be honest- 35 hrs was surprisingly longer than I thought it would be- and the longest we've seen in a long long time for a new product.
It's only two possible reasons:
Reason 1 - The android fanboys / basement dwellers will state that it sold-out because the millions upon millions of iSheep that like shiny new toys keeps the company going.
Reason 2 - The previously-mentioned fanboys will fabricate yet another statistic saying that having an Apple product taking 35 hours to sell out of any product implies that... wait for it... "Apple is doomed".
How does that compare to the average length of time it takes to sell your iPad 1 on eBay and/or find a friend of relative to give/sell the aging device to so you can reduce the cost of the new device?
[quote name="Andysol" url="/t/153819/black-and-slate-16gb-ipad-mini-sells-out-in-35-hours#post_2221056"]They must've read my post in the other thread. Lol. Gotta be honest- 35 hrs was surprisingly longer than I thought it would be- and the longest we've seen in a long long time for a new product.[/quote] Perhaps people got spooked by reports of scratches gouging right through the anodised layer? Although for myself I think the white/silver version looks nicer (also, I have a white iPhone 4 ;)) and would be prepared to wait for it to come back in stock. Roll on 2 November so I can go to the Apple Store and compare the iPad Minis and iPad 4-s :smokey: