The global debut of iPad Mini Friday wasn’t met with endless lines of fans outside stores like it is usually the case with other Apple products.
In Hong Kong, for example, by midday, the line at Apple's flagship store to pick up reserved devices had five people, a far cry from the throngs that turned out for the iPad 2 debut here last year.
Hong Kong was among the first of 34 countries – including the U.S. and major European markets – where the iPad Mini went on sale Friday. Local press reports in Australia and Japan also suggested fewer fans were lining up to greet the thin 7.9-inch tablet.
Buyers were required to pre-order the device and arrive to pick up at a scheduled time, which may have contributed to the muted response. In January Apple halted sales of its iPhone 4S in Beijing and Shanghai after scuffles broke out among fans waiting overnight to buy the phone.
Apple wouldn't comment on how many iPad Minis were pre-ordered.
In recent years, lining up to be among the first to buy new Apple products has become a ritual around the globe. Yet news reports and anecdotal posts on Twitter found smaller-than-usual lines at Apple stores in London, Sydney and other cities.
However, more than 750 people lined up to buy the tablet -- or other Apple gadgets -- Friday morning outside Apple's flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York City,according to Fortune's Philip Elmer DeWitt. The size of the line was perhaps surprising given that Hurricane Sandy has disrupted access to Manhattan and some parts of the city are still without power.
On Twitter, some observers criticized the priorities of New Yorkers lining up to buy a pricey electronic gadget when other city residents were suffering in the aftermath of the storm.
iPad Mini was announced on October 23, 2012, as the fifth overall generation of the iPad line and the first to feature a reduced screen size of 7.9 inches, in contrast to the standard 9.7 inches. It features similar internal specifications as the iPad 2, including its display resolution.
The iPad Mini is priced starting at $329 in the United States, £269 in the United Kingdom and between €313 and €339 in the euro zone. Apple started shipping the product Friday in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
