“The Apple Inc. faithful—and a few enterprising individuals [selling places in the queues] —lined up early Friday in anticipation of the iPad 2 tablet,” Roger Cheng reports for The Wall Street Journal. “Scores of people waited outside on a soggy morning here for the follow-up to Apple’s blockbuster device at the company’s marquee Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan. Another dozen were in line at Apple’s store in the Upper West Side. The iPad 2 goes on sale in stores at 5 p.m.”
“Alongside the Apple fanboys Friday were a few individuals looking to profit from their highly coveted positions. Amanda Foote, a 20-year-old college student, got outside of the Fifth Avenue Apple store at 5 p.m. EST on Wednesday. But unlike many people in the line, she had no intention of purchasing an iPad,” Cheng reports. “‘I’m trying to go home to Florida,’ she said. ‘And I want to go see Lady Gaga in concert.’ Instead, she posted her seat on Craigslist and other listing websites, and eventually sold her spot for $900 in cash to Hazem Sayed, the developer of the iPhone and iPad application AskLocal.”
Cheng reports, “The enthusiastic crowd underscores the draw of an Apple launch, even for a product that many have deemed an incremental upgrade. It also illustrates the strength of Apple’s position in the emerging market for mobile computing devices, where eight out 10 tablets purchased in 2010 were iPads… The new device is expected to produce strong sales for Apple. A study from ChangeWave Research showed that more than four out of five respondents who plan to buy a tablet soon said they’ll purchase an iPad. Although competitors have rushed devices to the market trumpeting more features than Apple’s devices, very few respondents were seriously considering them.
Read more in the full article here.
Flickr user “Out N’ Front” has posted photos of the soggy lineup outside Apple Store Fifth Avenue in NYC this morning here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
#14 in line now and it’s growing every few minutes
Have you considered selling your spot. Some lady in NYC just sold her spot for $900. She’s gonna buy Lady Gaga tickets with her cash. She doesn’t deserve an iPad 2 anyway.
http://mashable.com/2011/03/11/ipad-2-line-900/
Ridiculous. Waiting in line for a non-Windows tablet.
That’s MAC sheep for you. They just follow the ignorant, pretentious crowd to have the latest overpriced proprietary toy that doesn’t have access to Zune Marketplace.
Outlook Calendar this lemmings: These “crowds” will appear puny when Microsoft releases the next tablet version of WIndows.
Zune Tang: Is there really a Zune Marketplace?? Is there really a Zune? Seriously, I thought the product died. I think I saw one at a garage sale once… unsold.
CourtJester
Baa! Baa!
There are no Windows tablets to wait in line for, so it has to be non-Windows tablets. iTunes is about 10X the size of the Zune Marketplace with 200 million credit card accounts of consumers waiting to spend billions of dollars for high-quality Apple products. You know how many consumers bought Zunes last year? We’ll never know because Microsoft is too embarrassed to say exactly how few were sold.
What happens if you’re #101 at the back of the queue and discover that Apple’s run out of iPads when you reach the head of the line?
Will you:
– throttle an Apple employee to death
– fall to the ground wailing and gnashing of teeth
– scream and shout saying all sorts of unmentionables against Steve Jobs, Tim Cook & Apple stocking policy
– mug the guy in front of you who grabbed the last iPad
– go home dejectedly & order online like you should have done in the first place
– throw yourself in front of an onrushing cab just to spite the Pakistani driver
– all of the above
“Pakistani driver?” Let’s not stereotype. Should be Indian driver.
Throwing chairs comes to mind…
Loser article….
Once again with the mid 90s “Apple Faithful” crap……
Also the tired and incorrect “draw of an Apple launch” It isn’t any kind of RDF, or brainwashing, or mind control. Apple simply makes great products that people want to buy. No magic or voodoo, just great products.
You’d think after witnessing this unexplainable phenomena that somehow happens every time an iPhone or iPad is introduced, that the media would catch a clue. Apple makes great products that people want to buy and use.
What the “tech press” never has acknowledged is that if it had not been for “The Apple Faithful”, Apple would have died & all the stuff downstream.
It wan’t a cult: it was people who didn’t want to be chained to shitware from Microsoft.
I’m in line right now!
We have a little over 25 in line at Austin’s Barton Creek.
So there are 10x the distribution channels as there were when iPad 1 launched and there are already 25 in your line? The numbers for the first weekend are going to be through the roof baby!
“…a product that many have deemed an incremental upgrade…”
Ahh, the voice of the “many.” Well, I suppose that it is an incremental upgrade if, by “increment,” you mean radically increasing the processor and graphics performance and reducing size and weight without adversely impacting battery life. That would be like upgrading my Honda Fit to around 300 HP and increasing interior volume/dimensions while also maintaining 30+ MPG. Here’s to incremental upgrades!
Damn it! There’s going to be lines?! Now I’m forced to get off work early to get one.
I am number 17 at the Apple Store in Tysons corner… Come by and say hi
Apple here just gave us a free lunch for those waiting in line… Chick-fil-a chicken nuggets!
I need information about the Tacoma Mall Store. Is there a line?
Even though I have all mine already ordered online, Im tempted to drive around and see if there are any low lines. Buy at least the 64gb 3G that I’m getting and cancel my online order for it.
Or just toss it up on eBay after it gets here in a week lol.
I suppose in answer to my own question of what you should do in the event you’re left empty handed despite queuing for hours in the rain is you could sneak in an iPad 1 into the Apple store. Then when everyone’s attention is focused on the fanboys shoving their way in to buy the iPad 2, you could quietly swap your iPad 1 for the display iPad 2 on the table. Pull a smart cover over it – no one will be the wiser as dimensionally they look the same from above. Walk out with the iPad 2 under your arm and voilà! brand new iPad – you can even reuse your old charger! It’s bi-winning!
Go ahead and pull one of the display models off its security lanyard and see how far you get. Just take off running, they love that.
Better way, pull TWO security cords. While they attend to one, the second is yours.
When the hordes of people standing around see this, Im sure that nobody will say or do anything either… They will all be amazed that you thought to do it before anyone else, even the security guards posing as customers.
Told yas that Gene Munster made that article so people would be unprepared and he’d have first dibs! I bet he’s already in line.
MDN.. you should iCal Gene for this.
Number 1 at the Pasadena store!,,,
Some lady in NY sold her #1 position in line for $900.
In line #25. Apple Lenox square in Atlanta, GA!
My worry is that they won’t have the model I want in stock. Now there are two colors, three different memory configurations, Wifi only and WiFi + 3G, and two different 3G carriers. That’s 18 different models! Will they have enough of the black, 64GB, AT&T, model for me once I get inside?
One reason i decided to order it online.
I would be SO pissed if i waited in line for hours… and hear “sorry, we only have the 16GB WiFi model left” i’m NOT going to “settle” for whats left.. I want the 64GB AT&T 3G, thats all i’ll buy.
Mine’s ordered, scheduled to be here next friday… Rather wait a week, than wait for hours to get nothing but wasted time.
Fanboys?… What many consider an incremental upgrade?!
Puh-leeze, can you slip in any more mean-spirited bias with this “news” report? It’s almost like FauxNews. Ooops, it is FauxNews: the new Murdoch-motized WSJ.