While Aussies buy up iPads, a little country waits...

Over 30,000 iPads were sold in Australia on Friday, according to industry estimates. Photo / Getty Images

Apple sold more than 500,000 iPads in the first week of release in the US and a million after just 28 days. And that trend looks set to repeat everywhere else.

Fans mobbed Apple stores in Europe, Australia, Canada and Japan as the iPad went on sale for the first time outside the United States on Friday 28th May, with some shoppers having waited out all night.

The best news, for us, was the price of the Australian iPad: A$629 (about NZ$785). If the New Zealand price is similar, allowing for some extra shipping costs, I think if the cheapest NZ iPad goes on sale for around $800, we will see strong demand here.

Or hell, maybe we'll see strong demand anyway - I've seen a lot around already, with people paying $1300-1400. But I hope Apple doesn't use that as a reason to set our official prices high!

One caveat may be that the New Zealand dollar has dropped recently - it looks like Apple sets the price of a new product in New Zealand on its release, going by the exchange rate at that time.

In the past this has led to anomalies like an affordable-seeming Mac Pro being sold alongside a comparatively steeply-priced laptop.

Australians bought an estimated 30,000 iPads on Friday as the product went on sale nationwide. A further 20,000 of the tablet computers were expected to be sold over weekend.

In Sydney, more than 300 customers had camped out overnight outside the flagship George St store. In Melbourne, over 250 buyers queued at the Chadstone store and over 230 at the Doncaster one. An hour after opening, people were still joining the queues, and each queue had over 80 people in it, according to MacNews.

In Japan, over 1200 queued at Apple's flagship Ginza store for an 8am opening. Lines had started as early as Wednesday, and similar lines formed in Europe.

Even Germans queued for iPads. "It's a bit of a gut decision, an emotional decision, because it's not really rationally justifiable," said Anna Kistner as she emerged from the Apple store in Munich, Germany with two iPads. "It's a lot of money."

Maybe Apple should be considering this fact in store designs - a nice patch of grass outside for tents, a public toilet and water supply, space for a coffee cart ... Over 900,000 allegedly pre-ordered the tablet in Europe before it as available to buy.

A change for the Australian model, which may also be reflected here, is where Australians can buy iPads.

In Australia, the iPad is available in all seven of the Apple Retail Stores and the Apple Online Store as well, as you'd expect, but also it is being sold in other electronics goods-centric chain stores which also handle Macs.

It is also available there in the electronics resellers Dick Smith, JB Hi-Fi, which are both represented strongly in NZ retail, plus in the department store Myer, plus at the Apple Authorised Reseller department store Next Byte.

This is because the two capital cities of the two largest states of Australia (Western Australia and South Australia) don't have Apple Retail Stores.

Of course, we don't have a single Apple Store, but New Zealand does have Apple Authorised Resellers (non-Apple-run, but Apple authorised shops) in all main centres. But perhaps Dick Smith and JB will be allowed to sell iPads? I don't know.

Apple sold a million iPads in the United States in the first month after its April 3rd debut, exceeding the most bullish pre-launch estimates. Demand was so heavy, Apple delayed the international launch which happened last week.

Shares of Apple, which also makes the iPod and iPhone, jumped as much as 2.3 per cent before settling back to end the session up 1.4 per cent, outpacing a sliding market. Analysts said Wall Street had already priced in the big launch.

British technology analysts Ovum predicted the global mobile application market will be worth US$5.7 billion by 2014. Ovum has found the total value of downloaded apps on the iPad will hit US$68.8 million this year.

The iPad's debut sets the stage for Apple very probably launch of a new iPhone. This will most likely be launched by Chief Executive Steve Jobs on June 7 during the annual Apple Worldwide Developers' Conference. The new model is thought to have with multi-tasking features and more, but we don't know anything officially about it, of course.

What about iPad data?

The iPad comes in two models - the WiFi equipped one, a là iPod touch, which can surf and get email etc as long as you're in a wireless zone, and a more iPhone-style 3G model that comes with WiFi plus cell net access, like an iPhone except it won't handle calls. But it will surf and get email wherever you can get cell phone reception for a truly mobile device - but of course, that will incur cellnet charges.

Vodaphone Australia has become the first telephone carrier in Australia to offer an unlimited data plan.

http://store.vodafone.com.au/mobile-broadband-mbb-data-plans-for-ipad.aspx

The plan is for internet usage, mobile or fixed connection. Vodafone Australia has launched a 30-day plan for A$50 for unlimited data, but it's for the 3G iPad only.

I can't see an unlimited iPad plan happening here, though, as we have capped everything due to that one data cable connecting us to the rest of the world.

Besides, so far Vodafone has not officially stated anything about data or iPad.

We don't yet know if Vodafone NZ is even in talks with Apple about data plans, although since Vodafone has the iPhone and Telecom doesn't, unless Apple expands carriers in New Zealand, Vodafone NZ is the natural fit for iPad plans.

So, until July 'sometime', then.

- Mark Webster mac-nz