LIHU‘E — There were no lines outside the building. In fact, there was little fanfare on what was taking place inside the Mac Made Easy store in Lihu‘e. “We just got our first shipment this morning around 11 a.m.,” said
LIHU‘E — There were no lines outside the building. In fact, there was little fanfare on what was taking place inside the Mac Made Easy store in Lihu‘e.
“We just got our first shipment this morning around 11 a.m.,” said Marc Sicignano of Mac Made Easy. “We thought we were going to get a shipment Friday but the shippers had other plans.”
Sicignano said Mac Made Easy received a small amount of the Apple product in each of the model designations, with more on order.
Apple Inc. said it delivered more than 300,000 iPads on its opening day, meeting expectations of some analysts while underscoring the challenges the company still faces marketing the device beyond early adopters, said Jessica Mintz in an Associated Press article.
Assuming most of the 300,000 iPads ended up in the hands of consumers Saturday, though, the figure is in line with the number of iPhones that Apple sold when the smart phone made its debut in June 2007. Apple didn’t publicize first-day sales at the time, but later earnings reports indicated the company sold about 270,000 iPhones during the first two days the gadget was available.
“I heard the Apple store at Ala Moana was sold out Saturday,” said Noel Mock of the Kaua‘i Community College bookstore, Monday morning.
Apple devotees were willing to queue up across the country to be among the first to own an iPad, even if they weren’t exactly sure what they’d end up using it for.
The models currently on sale connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi; prices start at $499. A second wave of buyers may emerge when Apple starts selling versions that can also get online using cellular networks; those models start at $629, states the AP article.
Mac Made Easy, an Apple reseller located adjacent to Hilo Hattie’s in Lihu‘e, has the starting model iPad priced at $499.
Apple said Monday that new iPad owners downloaded more than a million applications and more than 250,000 electronic books from its iTunes store on Saturday.
Sicignano said the initial shipment of iPads were just for the computers. Accessories, including the iPad Keyboard Dock and the iPad Case should be arriving in the next few days.
