SAN FRANCISCO — The updated version of Apple’s iPad tablet computer went on sale Friday afternoon, and was greeted by the now-familiar lines of buyers outside Apple stores.
The Cupertino, Calif., company opened online sales of the iPad 2 at 4 a.m. Eastern time, well before they became available in East Coast stores at 5 p.m. They were set to go on sale nationwide at the same hour, local time.
Apple fans, as usual, were eager to get their hands on the device as they waited at the company’s Fifth Avenue store in New York. The line of customers, including some who traveled from Japan and Russia, snaked through the street-level plaza above the subterranean store while bystanders gawked at the crowd.
Employees cheered from inside the store as buyers entered.
Alex Shumilov, a customer who traveled from Moscow to snag two iPads, emerged first, beaming while holding one tablet in each hand. The trendy device won’t go on sale outside the U.S. for another two weeks.
At the downtown San Francisco store, Dennis Ng, 20, said he was being paid $10 an hour to arrive before 5 a.m. He said he was among about 35 mostly Chinese immigrants at the front of the line, waiting to buy the iPad for somebody else. Resales of new electronics in countries where they’re not yet available feed the so-called gray market.
“I’m here waiting in line because I want to make some money,” said Ng, who wouldn’t identify who hired him.
When the original version of the iPad debuted 11 months ago, Apple said it sold more than 300,000 on the first day. It ended up selling more than 15 million in the first nine months, including 7.3 million in the October-December quarter.
The new iPad model comes with several improvements but the same price tag — $499 to $829, depending on storage space and whether they can connect to the Internet over a cellular network. Analysts say the improvement would make it more difficult for rivals to break Apple’s hold on the emerging market for tablet computers.
