“But iPads have been available to Hong Kongers since their official U.S. launch in April thanks to the hard work of vendors like Kurt Lo,” Vo reports. “Lo used to import iPads through ‘friends’ that bought the touch-screen device from Apple stores in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, then shipped or hand-carried them to Hong Kong in bundles at a time.”
“Now, he said, he can buy them in a local store and resell them to customers at his Hong Kong store and in other countries, like mainland China or Vietnam,” Vo reports. “‘Crazy — the iPad is crazy,’ Lo said. ‘Makes me very crazy and very busy today.'”
Vo reports, “He’s gotten 300 to 400 orders from Vietnam and China this week, up from about 200 to 300 in prior weeks, he said.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: That iPad makin’ me craaazy!!! (In a good way.)
I crazy, crazy mad for Apple iPad!
It must be very hard for cheap knock-off makers to fake an iPad using Windows 7 or Android as the OS. Hence, the “real deal” will be even more popular and in demand.
In other news, shares of ARM have risen 12% so far today upon news that a deal, no financial details as yet disclosed, has been signed with Microsoft! Surely this signifies the cluelessness of the stock market, at least when it comes to tech stocks: Microsoft is the lame glue-factory-bound horse of the mobile device race, but the mere mention of its name still seems to send any potential partner’s price rocketing, despite Microsoft’s failures in the very market ARM caters for, not to mention its past treatment of partners.
Meanwhile, Apple blasts through all expectations with record sales, super-high demand, excellent product reliability and customer satisfaction, and the share price goes up a massive, what is it on average, 1%? Underperforming compared to the NASDAQ three days running.
What a world!!! Or have I got something wrong somewhere?
There’s the iPad and a jumbled mess of Android, WebOs and Windows 7 wannabes coming down the platform with no clear direction or identity. They will attempt to win the features comparisons but they just don’t get it. Apple gets it. The Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod all have separate identities. There’s some crossover in features but they are all pretty much their own animals. So, when I hear about Android tablets wanting to offer features the iPad doesn’t have, I laugh. Don’t they get it? Do you if people want an iPad for data production instead of consuming, they’ll get a Mac. Case in point, check out this review of the Dell Streak over at USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2010-07-22-baig22_ST_N.htm. Hilarious, the Streak can’t decide what it wants to be – a big ass phone or an undersized tablet. It’ll get beat up on Apple’s playground on either front. Nobody will be able to kill the iPhone or the iPad for one simple reason, “APPLE’S APP UNIVERSE.” It makes the Droid App store look like a thrift shop. With Netflix, Hulu and Youtube all with their own Apps available for the iPad, the argument for Flash goes down the toilet. There’s no catching the iPad.
I hope Steve Ballmer was able to pick up a few iPads for his Research and Development Team!
I think Steve Jobs should ship Microsoft one of the next “Just one more thing” devices on the release day and mark it “Attention: Microsoft Research and Development Department”! A little iPod YouTube video of Steve shipping it to them would get a few million hits and get the stock to jump another 10%! (Ok, I have a mean streak.)
No wonder there’s a shortage, everyone and their “friends” are shipping them out of the country!!!
I am surprised that Apple hasn’t add the traditional Chinese input to iPad! Especially Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and most of the Chinese around the world are using the traditional Chinese.
iPad love you long, long time…
I hate the iPad and I hold Steve personally responsible.
Since using the iPad, I just dont want to use my MBP and iPhone anymore.
;p
What the hell are you guys talking about? Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese (not interchangeable) have already been on iOS for ages! Check out the International Keyboards.
Hong Kong people can pretty much buy whatever they want. They have a free port and they got loads of disposable income. Probably more than Japanese actually. There are all kinds of USA, European, Japanese electro devices all around. You might think Akihabara is the bomb but actually Hong Kong sells all those items PLUS many more from all over the rest of the world.
And yet these folks choose iPads.
Very telling!
You’re right! And of course, Hong Kong is just next door to mainland China so if they wanted, they can of course buy those China knockoffs for 10th the price, and still they buy the real thing.
This is where Apple’s caché helps it in the Chinese world. Among the burgeoning Chinese upper and middle class, it’s all about status. Last weekend I was in Kowloon Hong Kong and as I was walking by a Chanel store and a Louis Vuitton store that were near each other, I noticed there was a line of people out the door at each store, and the door-person was letting in a few at a time, as both stores were at capacity. I asked my friend why there were such long lines… were both stores having a big sale or something? He said on the weekends it’s like that. Many tourists from China come to HK on the weekends, and they were buying up the luxury goods. What makes this interesting is that you can get cheap knock offs “copy handbags” all over the place in HK, yet the Chinese were willing to wait in long lines to get the real thing. The Chinese are not going to go for cheap copies of iPhone, iPad, or anything else. They want the real thing.
World wide hysteria that feeds on itself all for a gadget that has very little to offer. When every country in the world finally gets over itself, the iPad is going to take its rightful place among other ordinary mobile devices unless Apple turns it into a real computer. And, that means it will come close to being a different kind of laptop – not a really good laptop, but something far more useful than it is now.
In the meantime, rock on all you iPad fanatics – enjoy the ride even if you don’t know why your are taking it.
@Amazing
Just because you apparently do not know why people are taking the iPad ride, it doesn’t mean that iPad owners don’t know exactly why they love their iPads. It’s okay if the iPad is not right for you. I don’t know why you feel the need to denigrate those who have decided that it is right for them.
It actually is very telling whenever I hear anyone say they “just don’t get it” about iPhone, iPad, Mac, or whatever. It’s true. They don’t get it. Just like some people don’t get what’s so great about email or the Internet. Or ATMs.