Hundreds of customers queued outside Apple stores in Asia and Europe to buy an iPad 2 tablet computer amid fears that shortages in the United States would be repeated abroad.
The iPad 2, a thinner and faster version that features two cameras for video chat, was introduced in the United States on March 11, and analysts estimate about a million were sold in the first weekend. International prices start at around $499.
On Friday, the rollout was extended to 25 countries including most of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Mexico. The Japanese launch is delayed, but Apple says component shortages resulting from the earthquake there are not to blame.
Some non-Apple outlets in New Zealand and London said they had only been allocated a dozen iPads apiece. A source at one UK retail chain guessed the reason was more likely a desire on Apple's part to be seen to sell out rather than any shortage of parts.
Canadian backpacker Alex Lee, a veteran of Apple product launches, was the first to claim his iPad 2 at the Apple store in Sydney where he had been in line for two nights.
In London, 32-year-old financial adviser Jewels Lewis was at the head of the queue at Apple's Regent Street store, after being fourth in line for the original iPad a year ago. He had been waiting since 0730 on Thursday for the 1700 Friday sale. In Frankfurt, Germany, about 80 people were waiting outside the Apple store. A few had been there since Thursday night but most gathered on Friday morning.
Thorsten Schumann, aged 30, summed up the instant attraction that many consumers feel for Apple products. "I was in the States and I held an iPad 2 in my hand, and now I want to have one," he said.
In Asia, the iPad 2 will be officially available in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and other countries in April. In Hong Kong, iPads purchased in the United States are already on sale for hefty mark-ups.
The first iPad, which went on sale a year ago, sold 500,000 units in the first week and crossed the 1 million unit mark in 28 days. Nearly 15 million iPads were sold in nine months of 2010, two or three times as many as analysts had predicted.
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