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Crowds snap up first Apple iPads

By Connie Guglielmo and Mina Kawai (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-05 09:53

Executive help

Scott Forstall, Apple's executive in charge of iPhone and iPad software, stood on the street filming the crowd as store employees counted down from 10 to the store's opening. He then helped out at the customer service desk, answering questions and mingling with the early iPad buyers. Jobs showed up later in the morning, with Apple pushing reporters out of the store so he could mingle with the crowd.

"It's very exciting," Forstall said after declining to be interviewed.

Users can surf the Internet, peruse digital books, watch video and play games on the iPad. What it lacks is a built-in camera or support for Adobe Systems Inc's Flash software, which runs much of the video on the Web. The device also doesn't let users carry out multiple tasks at once.

Courtney Shedden, who went to the Freehold Raceway Mall in New Jersey to buy an iPad for her boyfriend, says she wouldn't get one for herself.

'Just another toy'

"It's just another toy and he has to have it," said Shedden, 24. It wouldn't help her as a student working toward a master's degree at Villanova University, she said. She uses Microsoft's Excel and there would be "a lot of compatibility issues", Shedden said.

The iPad's first wave of reviews praised its ability to deliver digital books and video quickly, saying it measures up well against other devices, including Amazon.com Inc's Kindle e-book reader. Bloomberg columnist Rich Jaroslovsky said it may change the way people relate to computers, requiring users to learn a "new language" that Apple has made "both elegant and very easy to master". USA Today's Edward Baig called the iPad "fun, simple, stunning to look at and blazingly fast".

Tablets have been available in one form or another since the 1990s, without ever catching on. They account for less than 1 percent of the personal-computer market, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

The iPad's success will depend partly on the attractiveness of applications that run on it. CBS Corp, the most-watched US TV network, announced plans this week to offer episodes of shows such as Survivor and CSI on the iPad. Walt Disney Co will release iPad applications for ABC shows and ESPN games. And Netflix Inc, the movie-rental company, will let subscribers watch programming streamed to the iPad.

Leo Mitchell, a 14-year-old shopper at an Apple store in St. Louis, will use his new iPad to replace his Nook, an e-reader sold by Barnes & Noble Inc.

"I probably will bring it to school occasionally where I have a book report and the book is on my iPad," he said. Mitchell used babysitting money to pay for the iPad. "I save most of my money," he said. "I don't spend it frivolously."

New markets

At the Fair Oaks Shopping Center in Fairfax, Virginia, Bill Daniels was buying the computer for his five-year-old son.

"I think there will eventually be one in every school classroom one day," he said. Daniels, a 48-year-old marketing consultant from Vienna, Virginia, said he owns three other Apple products.

"I was a PC guy," he said. "Just converted to Apple last year."

Apple, which has more than doubled in the past year, rose 97 cents to close at a record $235.97 on Thursday in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. US markets were closed for Good Friday.

Like the iPhone, the iPad will test Apple's ability to conquer new markets. Since returning to the company in 1997, Jobs revived the Macintosh computer business, reshaped digital music with the iPod and pushed Apple into the mobile-phone field. Adding those products propelled revenue and profit to record levels.

Sales estimates

When the iPhone debuted, Apple struggled to keep it in stock. Most of its stores quickly sold out, and resellers on EBay and Craigslist hawked the device to desperate shoppers for as much as $12,000.

Even if the iPad fails to repeat that kind of frenzy, its initial sales could be higher than the iPhone's, says Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co in New York. He projects sales of 300,000 to 400,000 iPads over the weekend. That compares with the 270,000 iPhones sold in its 2007 debut. Apple may sell about 5 million iPads in the first 12 months, compared with 6.1 million iPhones in its first year on the market, according to Sacconaghi.

At the outset, iPads will connect to the Web through localized hot spots that use Wi-Fi technology. Some shoppers may wait for a version with 3G, which lets the iPad connect to mobile-phone networks. It's due later this month.

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