WSJ: After strong initial demand, some lines for Apple iPad 'thin'
Profiling the iPad launch on Saturday, The Wall Street Journal noted that hundreds of fans gathered around the Apple flagship store on 5th Avenue in New York City. But the excitement was reportedly short-lived at a Best Buy in North Carolina.
"Traffic was thin by about 10:30 a.m. at the Apple desk of a suburban Charlotte, N.C., outlet of Best Buy Inc., the other major retailer stocking the device," the report said. "Store manager Andrew Rochelle said three people were waiting in line when he got to the store at 7 a.m. and by opening time at 10 a.m., the store had handed out about half of its 60 right-to-buy tickets."
The Journal also said the scene was "muted" at the Apple store in Northpark Mall in Dallas, Tex.
"While some who showed up early had to wait several hours to get into the store, by 10:15 there was no one standing in line and workers were putting away the metal poles that had kept earlier crowds in order," the report said.
The newspaper suggested that crowds were "tempered" by the fact that Apple offered online preorders starting March 12, and the hardware was shipped directly to consumers for free on launch date. It also speculated that some could be waiting for the 3G-capable iPad, due to be released later this month.
Separately, AppleInsider received reports of stores selling out quickly after opening, and limited supply in certain locations. One Best Buy in San Francisco had very small quantities of iPads for Saturday's launch.
Calculations for preorders for the iPad have suggested Apple sold 120,000 on the first day alone. Analyst Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray has forecast that Apple will sell out of its initial supply on launch weekend, which he has predicted will be between 200,000 and 300,000.
203 Comments
Perhaps they can get on and launch it in other markets now then. Like the UK? Yeah? Please? Thanks!
Perhaps they can get on and launch it in other markets now then. Like the UK? Yeah? Please? Thanks!
Folks in UK are already lucky enough to get their hands on it in "late April", while the rest of us will likely remain as sad pandas for another couple of months.
Whoa whoa, some stores sold out their 60 units! The lines must have been at least 20 feet long! Talk about huge sales...
I'm a little surprised the wifi model has done as well as it has. I really expected people to gravitate more towards the 3G model. I'm typing from my wife's iPad now and in my opinion this device is absolutely amazing.
I saw in another thread that the iPad supposedly has only 256MB of RAM. If true, I'm amazed at it's ability to rip through the web... I've been looking for pages with lots of graphics to see how this thing will perform under stress. So far it's kicking butt.
I didn't stand in line for one.