As many of you know I’m an expat living in Sydney and I got an iPad 2 (finally!) tonight. Here’s some first hand reporting from Australia around the frenzy that greeted iPad 2…
Went by the main Apple store in downtown Sydney at noon during my lunch hour. There were EASILY 500 people in line. I had ordered online at 6 AM so I looked at that line and went “no way!”
Then, the technolust raised its ugly head at 2PM. Could I wait the three weeks before getting one? Nope. So I went to JB Hi Fi at 5 PM. The line was easily 80+ people long, and I was hopeful but realistic. 15 minutes later, they announced all the white ones were gone. At 5:20, they announced all the 3G units were gone. Half the line left. I got even more hopeful.
I was 14th in line when they said “NO MORE STOCK, we may get some more next week. Maybe.” Crap. I dashed to another JB Hi-Fi two blocks over – no luck. They were sold out too.
One last hope – Myers, a huge retailer here, has a large Apple presence in their electronics department. I went over to Pitt street, to the 6-story Myers location, and took the lift to the sixth floor…
MASSIVE line. Easily 200 people.
I asked someone who worked there, “any chance?” He said if you want Wi-fi, yes, you will probably get one. 3G is the most popular model here, with white being second – They love their ubiquitous ‘net connectivity down under.
They were limiting each person to 3 iPads purchases each (which, frankly, ticks me off = it should be at most two, preferably one per customer).
They sold out of the 3G by 6:30, and they ran out of the 64GB unit at 6:20. They were almost out of white by 7.
At 7:10 I got a 32GB white iPad 2. I am currently syncing it and will be happily playing with it soon. When I left they had around 150 units left, so Myers got (I would guess) at least 500 iPad 2s. And when you count the number of Myers, and JB Hi-Fi locations… There are a ton of units shipped for the international launch, but the massive crowds and interest guarantees that they will be gone by morning here.
Note to myself – buy more Apple stock.