Apple's £269 iPad mini goes on sale around the world - but even the queues are smaller

By MARK PRIGG

Kay Hunter, 19, one of the first customers with her new iPad Mini on the day they where released at the Apple Store in Glasgow. However, queues were smaller than for previous launches. Apple's new iPad mini has gone on sale around the world. While a few diehard fans queued for hours to be among the first to own the new smaller iPad, queues were tiny compared to previous launches. In Hong Kong, reports even claim that staff outnumbered the customers when the store opened.

The queues at Apple's Covent Garden store today for the iPad mini (left) compared to the queue for the iPhone 5 (right) on October 14th Experts say bad weather, Hurricane Sandy and increased competition from rivals such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft could be behind to lack of queues. Experts believe the effects of Hurricane Sandy and the large number of online orders mean the queues were smaller.

Customers form a queue outside an Apple store to purchase the company's new iPad Mini in Seoul, South Korea Apple fans lined up in several Asian cities to get their hands on the iPad mini on Friday, but the device, priced above rival gadgets from Google and Amazon.com, attracted smaller crowds than at the company's previous global rollouts. Apple Inc's global gadget rollouts are typically high-energy affairs drawing droves of buyers who stand in line for hours. But a proliferation of comparable rival devices may have sapped some interest.

Apple staff in Glasgow celebrate the launch of the £269 iPad mini, which went on sale around the world today About 50 people waited for the Apple store in Sydney, Australia, to open, where in the past the line had stretched for several blocks when the company debuted new iPhones. At the head of Friday's line was Patrick Li, who had been waiting since 4:30 am and was keen to get his hands on the 7.9-inch slate. 'It's light, easy to handle, and I'll use it to read books. It's better than the original iPad,' Li said. There were queues of 100 or more outside Apple stores in Tokyo and Seoul when the device went on sale, but when the company's flagship Hong Kong store opened staff appeared to outnumber those waiting in line.

The Apple Store Ginza in Tokyo saw the biggest number of fans, with many dressing up for the occasion

Tokyo, Japan where many Apple fans queued up to buy the new iPad mini

The queue for the iPad Mini at The Covent Garden Apple store. Craig Jobbins was first in line to get his iPad Mini. He queued from 3.30am. source: dailymail

Apple's £269 iPad mini goes on sale around the world - but even the queues are smaller 2012-11-02T05:34:00-07:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Bona Pasogit