Mikey Campbell
Apple's iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad are now available in New Zealand, the first country to start sales of the long-awaited 7.9-inch tablet that was unveiled at the end of October.
Update: Reports are coming in of iPad mini sales going live in Australia. Apple will continue rolling out the tablet around the world through brick-and-mortar Apple Stores and resellers, with each location starting sales at 8 a.m. local time.
New Zealand on Friday became the first country to start sales of Apple's hotly-anticipated iPad mini, which will rollout to launch countries worldwide on Nov. 2 at 8 a.m. local time.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, customers looking to buy the tablet from the island nation's resellers got a 20-hour jump on consumers in Apple's home town of San Francisco. Because Apple does not yet operate an official Apple Store in the country, it does not know which resellers have remaining stock.
“I don’t know who will have what (products) where in New Zealand but the retailers will certainly be able to open their doors so people can come in and touch and play straight away,†Apple spokeswoman Fiona Martin said.
Apple announced the 7.9-inch iPad mini at a special event on Oct. 23, with preorders for the mid-size tablet going live days later. Incredible demand saw launch day deliveries of all white and silver models sell out within hours, and the black and slate version followed suit two days later.
Most recently, a teardown of the device revealed a pair of stereo speakers, the first for an iDevice, as well as a Samsung-sourced LCD panel.
According to one analyst, Apple is expected to sell up to 1.5 million iPad minis over launch weekend, about half the number of iPad 3 units sold in March.
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17 Comments
One tablet to rule them all and in the darkness grind them. I believe Smaug was the first customer in New Zealand to purchase an iPad Mini then promptly sat on it.
Well, I'm at the local Apple Store typing this on a black iPad Mini :). My main objective has been to see what the screen is like (given that I don't have Retina display to call my own ;)). It's very nice: much nicer than that of the iPad 1 that I use! The tablet is light and easy to holde in hand: I've been typing this in portrait and landscape (currently landscape) effortlessly while standing at the iPad table. I'm going to do a bit more playing with so see you all later (I'm after the cell version, btw ;)).
In Collingwood, just received delivery of the iPad mini I had ordered. Amazingly light .. and very usable screen ... am impressed.
In Collingwood, just received delivery of the iPad mini I had ordered. Amazingly light .. and very usable screen ... am impressed.
how do you find the screen compared to iPad 1 / 2? Is it bad as some of the reviews make it out to be?
I don't know why people think the screen would be bad. I have an original iPad and I think the screen is very good. 1024x768 is very usable and websites, media, and other content look totally fine. The mini screen should look a bit better than an iPad2 or original iPad screen.