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iPad international launches today

Lycanthrope

Lycanthrope

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 1, 2005
566
92
Brussels, Belgium, Europe
Well I haven't seen anything written about the roll-out to various countries of iPad today.

I must say that here in Belgium there seems to be a muted response - my colleague saw one in a shop and nobody was paying much attention.

I'm just back this evening from Media Markt (large electrical retailer with an Apple corner). They had four on demo and I didn't have to queue to play with one either. They had loads in the stock too.

I'm wondering if they've made a mistake in releasing it one week before the iP4, certainly I myself will buy one of those (if I can) next week, but if for instance it wasn't due until later in the year I probably would have bought an iPad.
 
Lycanthrope said:
Well I haven't seen anything written about the roll-out to various countries of iPad today.

I must say that here in Belgium there seems to be a muted response - my colleague saw one in a shop and nobody was paying much attention.

I'm just back this evening from Media Markt (large electrical retailer with an Apple corner). They had four on demo and I didn't have to queue to play with one either. They had loads in the stock too.

I'm wondering if they've made a mistake in releasing it one week before the iP4, certainly I myself will buy one of those (if I can) next week, but if for instance it wasn't due until later in the year I probably would have bought an iPad.
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Why a mistake? If people want them, they'll buy them; if they don't want them, they won't. I have friends in Europe who want to buy iPads but still don't have them in their countries. Maybe they'll take a road trip.
 
poloponies said:
Why a mistake? If people want them, they'll buy them; if they don't want them, they won't. I have friends in Europe who want to buy iPads but still don't have them in their countries. Maybe they'll take a road trip.
Click to expand...

Just speculation based on my own situation, which I could imagine is shared by other Apple freaks. Normally I wouldn't be able to get my hands on and iPad quickly enough, but I'm focussed on the iP4 next Friday.
 
Launched in Ireland, yet we have no official Apple stores. Very few compu b stores have them outside of main ones in Dublin, and even the god damn Apple Store Ireland website doesn't have them for sale.

Muted response here too, but given the push by Apple or lack of, I'm surprised it even made the news at all.

Maybe they are saving the Apple marketing budget for iPhone 4 next week, but iPad seems to be the most lacklustre launch ever here.
 
Mexico's launch wasn't muted at all! Here we had many Apple Resellers opening at midnight whilst the other ones opened to cues as well. We even had the carriers give us a free month of 3G unlimited data and the news coverage was all over the place.

This might be because we aren't getting the iPhone 4 next friday (out of all the countries that have the iPad, Mexico isn't getting it untill who knows when :mad:)
 
Launched in New Zealand with out a fuss. One person in the country camped out over night, with most just showing up shortly before the shops opened, with as many reporters as customers present.

I don't know about elsewhere but they have been on sale from non official parallel importers, albeit for a premium, and then some people just popped over to Australia for $100 on a cheap flight to buy one, so it kind of killed the hype. (unlike the 3g where due to the time zone we where the first in the world to get.)
 
The launch in the Netherlands was pretty chilled too. The lines of 'Die-Hards' was cleared within the hour and the stores still have plenty in stock should you choose to wander in today.
 
How many people actually knew that it'd be released yesterday? Not the main public.

And the real diehards have bought their ipad's ages ago.
 
Well here in Singapore it's not very big but still there are lines and quite a fuss. Manage to get my 64GB wifi+3G after 2 hours of queueing up.
 
So how many iPads did Ireland get for it's mammoth Irish launch?

3000.


Yep 3000 units. No wonder it was mostly muted and hence the reason Apple have not bothered changing their website.

Really is that all they could manage? If so they shouldn't have bothered and waited until they could launch with some greater oomph. On the bright side they are mostly sold out :rolleyes: but come on it's 3000 units.

Rather meagre and I'm not sure a muted insignificant poorly marketed release is going to make the iPad a success here. Yes the die hards love it, but Mary & Johnny who make up the bulk of Ireland still don't know it exists, what one is, or even care due to the lacklustre release.

Worst launch of a new Apple product in Ireland I have seen.
 
wackymacky said:
Launched in New Zealand with out a fuss. One person in the country camped out over night, with most just showing up shortly before the shops opened, with as many reporters as customers present.

I don't know about elsewhere but they have been on sale from non official parallel importers, albeit for a premium, and then some people just popped over to Australia for $100 on a cheap flight to buy one, so it kind of killed the hype. (unlike the 3g where due to the time zone we where the first in the world to get.)
Click to expand...

I picked one up yesterday at around noon at the Apple Education reseller on Symonds St (no student discount though, tight bastards!) after my last class of the day and they had around 40 ish still there, but I think that they've been doing a brisk trade as it was mostly 3G units by the looks of things.

My impression has been that because of the delayed release there was no sense of prestige from qeueing, nor does anyone suffer from FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) because of the lack of qeues and screaming fanbois. This may change though if it is revealed that stocks are starting to run low - it seems that the entry level models are now rare as hens teeth at some stores across Auckland.
 
Well interesting to hear that this low-key response isn't a local phenomena. It's totally at odds with all the stories coming from the US where they sell them as soon as they get them.

Weird.
 
Lycanthrope said:
Well interesting to hear that this low-key response isn't a local phenomena. It's totally at odds with all the stories coming from the US where they sell them as soon as they get them.

Weird.
Click to expand...

I think it's mostly because there's the impression that there are plenty available so no-one is in a real rush to grab one. If it had been publicised that stocks were very limited then we would've had a different scnario on our hands - never underestimate how FOMO motivates people to consume.
 
Kebabselector said:
Is it cheaper to drive to Belfast and get one there? (assuming you're closer to the north). I know the media were mentioning cross border shopping last year and NI benefiting from this.
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Well it depends really. Euro has gone down a lot compared to sterling. Before you would get almost parity and therefore it was a heck of a lot cheaper, even factoring in time & travel. Now things aren't so clear cut.

For those close to the border, the answer is still yes (probably) for those further down, maybe not.

I'm right in the south west, so for me it's a definitive no. But hey I imported from the USA from launch day 1 of wifi, and launch day 1 of wifi+3G so it's a non issue.

It's still very dissapointing of apple to put together such a piss-poor launch though. I just can't fathom out why bother ?


I mean if you don't want to over shadow the iPhone 4 launch next week, then DELAY the ipad till August and have a major push then.

If they only had a few units, then DELAY the ipad till August and have a major push then.


If they just needed it to be 'out' why wait till the end of the month - so close to iPhone 4 release when they could have surely got 3000 units in from the UK / border closer to the UK launch ?


Just none of it makes any marketing sense what so ever.

Apple are turning into BP :D:eek::mad::(
 
My cousin out in Hong Kong said that the iPad flew off the shelves. All stores sold out literally by noon of the first day of the launch.
 
thelookingglass said:
My cousin out in Hong Kong said that the iPad flew off the shelves. All stores sold out literally by noon of the first day of the launch.
Click to expand...

From reports it seems all the 'lucky' 13 countries got roughly the same allotment of ipads (3000-5000) and therefore it would not be hard for any country to sell out even with a rather subdued launch.
 
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