“Apple-mania returned to Asia and Europe on Friday as the company’s latest version of its iPad went on sale, drawing die-hard fans to shops selling the highly anticipated tablet computer,” Kelvin Chan and Robert Barr report for The Associated Press.
“Gadget fans lined up in the U.K., France, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore so they could be among the first to get their hands on the device,” Chan and Barr report. “The third version of Apple’s iPad also went on sale in Australia, Germany and Switzerland and will be available in the U.S. and Canada from at 8 a.m. local time, with 25 other countries getting it a week later.”
Chan and Barr report, “For many customers, visiting a store in person — instead of having a new iPad shipped to their home— offers consumers a chance to mingle with die-hard Apple fans.
About 450 people lined up outside Apple’s Ginza store in downtown Tokyo. Some had spent the night sleeping outside the store to be among the first when it opened at 8 a.m. — two hours earlier than usual… Two years after the debut of the first iPad, the device’s launch has become the second-biggest “gadget event” of the year, after the annual iPhone release.”
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