[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a4H6QYyL3g[/youtube]
Although we are talking about the launch of an iDevice and normally we would expect to see very long tails in front of the Apple stores, in reality only a few locations have experienced something like this. In most locations the queues they were short and they "disappeared" shortly after the opening of Apple stores, but it's hard to say if we're talking about disinterest in Apple's launch or a slightly different marketing strategy. We already know that the number of pre-ordered units was very high and this means that people preferred to wait for the product at home instead of queuing in front of the store. We know that many Apple partners sold the iPad tablet since midnight and there were queues in front of those stores that persisted even in the morning when Apple opened its own stores.
Combining these two elements, we could conclude that Apple has divided the stock so that customers have the opportunity to buy the tablet from wherever they want without standing in line in front of the company's stores. It is also possible that the interest was extremely low, but I find it hard to believe this because the tablet was launched in 10 countries today and the initial stock sold out extremely quickly in all of them. It is possible that on Monday we will find out from Apple how many units were sold this weekend and we might have a new record for the launch of a tablet.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGutX-p2slc[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYB8Z9_HhfY[/youtube]
