Apple’s iPad 2 sold out in many major cities in mere hours after going on sale, leaving Apple fans livid across the globe.
The highly anticipated launch of the next generation iPad hit retailers in 25 countries on Friday, and many were wiped clean of stock by lunchtime. London, Berlin, Paris, Zurich, Toronto, Barcelona, Sydney and Melbourne have all been affected – and there’s no word on when shelves will be restocked.
Apple has not commented directly on the stock deficiency, but had this to say in a recent statement about the launch: “Demand for the next generation iPad 2 has been amazing. We are working hard to get iPad 2 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible.”
Many shoppers blame Apple for not properly anticipating the demand and turning away many fans empty handed – some who queued for over 50 hours for the popular tablet computer.
“If this was done to generate headlines it has massively backfired. For every happy iPad 2 owner I know, there are five people extremely pissed off at Apple,” said Matthew Powell, editor of MacTheMagazine.com.
According to Piper Jaffray, a market research firm, over 500,000 second-generation iPads were sold in the first day of sales in the US, up 67% compared to the launch of the original iPad.
Some experts are estimating Apple can sell up to 5.5m of the faster, slimmer iPad in the first quarter alone.
