The hype for iPad comes to Europe and Asia

May 28th was the first day of iPad sales in Europe and Asia. Long lines in front of Apple stores on this day suggest, this device may become very popular outside of the US as well.

Publishers are aware that the success of their strategies on tablets depends on the popularity of these devices in their countries. First real life evaluation of the demand for iPads in Europe and Asia prove, it is not a usual gadget, that could be ignored.

Last Friday, iPad hit the streets of Japan, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and Canada. In the second largest world economy – Japan, lines of 1,200 consumers were reported. In United Kingdom, the first consumers came to wait for iPad 36 hours before the premiere, similar in Australia. It seems, hype over iPad is spreading. In next step, in June, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland, and Luxembourg are going to join the group of countries selling iPads. Here is how the iPad premiere in Japan looked like:

European prices of iPads are pretty similar. WiFi only model costs about £429 (16GB) or £599 (64GB), and WiFi/3G models cost respectively £529 (16GB) or £699 (64GB). In Japan, also two versions of iPad are being sold (WiFi and 3G), and the prices start from 48,800 yen and 61,800 yen respectively. Also, pay plans for the internet access on iPads are being released. Example of such payplan in the UK: (a) £7,50 a month for 1GB of data monthly on Hutchinson’s Whampoa’s 3 network, (b) £25 for 10GB a month on Orange, (c) pay-as-you-go and daily plans are also being prepared.

Estimated sales level of iPads in new markets is not known yet. As soon as they are known, forum4editors will be here with this information. Just for comparison, over 1 million iPads were sold in the US in the first month. At the beginning of May, after the US premiere of the iPad 3G model, 350,000 iPads were sold during one weekend only.

Picture: John.Karakatsanis from flickr

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