A Victorian is the first to the world to own a new iPad after it went on sale in Oz this morning.
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| David Tarasenko with his new iPad. Image: The Daily Telegraph. |
34-year old David Tarasenko of Cheltenham, Victoria was apparently the first on the planet to get his eager mitts on the 9.7″ new iPad as it went on sale in 10 countries including Australia, US, Canada.
The delighted Tarasenko bought the new iPad at Telstra’s Sydney CBD Store on George St which opened its doors just past the witching hours of 12.01am this morning despite Apple Store across the road not opening til 8am.
70 souls queued outside Telstra’s store, though photographers appeared to outnumber buyers, suggesting the new iPad sale fell short of the hype surrounding previous Apple launches.
Read: iPad War: Vodafone Assault Telstra Plans $47 + 2GB
Tarasenko was in the queue at Apple Store but decided Telstra was a safer bet to get his hands on the tab that is already sold out at Apple online, joining the Telstra queue after 5pm yesterday, he told Daily Telegraph.
“I came here at 5.30pm and the lady’s like, ‘You are number one’ and I’m like, ‘Really?,” he said.
However, it appears he slipped away from work early to get in the iPad line. “I do want to keep it quiet, but that’s going to be pretty hard,” he added. (Fat chance of that now).
“I’m pretty excited and pumped about it, can’t wait till the weekend I guess, to start mucking around with it.”
So, what’s the fuss about? Apple fanatics queued for the newly spec-ed out 9.7″ cult tablet with new specs like super bright Retina screen, 4G capable (though not in Oz), new A5X chip with quad-core graphics, 5 mp iSight camera and 1080p HD video, which starts at $539 for 16GB model.
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This new iPad fest drove shares of the Cupertino giant briefly up past the US$600 for the first time in its history to $600.01, although fell back to $585.71 soon after.
According to CDN reports, the Apple Store had 35 individuals, nearly all of Asian appearance and mostly dozing, camped outside its doors (pictured above).
In contrast to previous years where the queues snaked for several blocks, this one barely made it round the first corner. A t the head of the queue stood former truckdriver Steve Parkes, who’d been in position since Monday last.
Parkes told CDN he’d never bought an Apple product and was unlikely to buy the new iPad for personal use, though he’d agreed to buy one for company, Airtasker.
Read Apple Products Losing Their Buzz But Not Their Share Price
And it looks like its not just Tarasenko and Co that has tab fever – the mobile computing craze is to go global – with analysts Canaccord Genuity predicting an astonishing 65 million iPad’s will be sold this year.
