Norwegian shops overwhelmed by iPad pre-orders
updated 12:50 pm EST, Tue February 9, 2010
Apple resellers get thousands of iPad requests
Apple is facing the rare incident of an advance sellout this week as a number of Norwegian resellers have had to stop their pre-order programs for the iPad. Eplehuset (Apple House) has told its customers that "crazy interest" has led it to stop sales in advance. Fellow Apple reseller Humac has also quietly pulled the iPad, as it still has a category but no longer has active product pages.
It's believed that the sites took thousands of advance orders for the touchscreen device and that, unusually, the largest portion of orders skew heavily towards the more expensive 64GB iPad with 3G. Norwegian prices are also expected to be disproportionately high as a 16GB, Wi-Fi only iPad may cost 3790 Krone, or about $636.
Most retailers elsewhere in the world haven't taken pre-orders, making it difficult to gauge how reflective Norway's surprise may be of actual overall demand. However, the smaller population compared to some of Apple's larger markets suggests that unofficial pre-orders should be larger where they exist in the US.
A strong build-up isn't uncharacteristic for e-reader devices, as Barnes & Noble had to delay retail Nook sales for months. Such delays have usually been attributed to low production rather than sheer demand, however, and have rarely been given concrete numbers to gauge actual interest.
Also, such demand isn't known to have been seen before for tablet computers, which usually ship in lower numbers as a whole and are noticeably less common in Europe or the Americas than in southeast Asian countries like Korea. [via iPod1]
There's an old sales adage...
02/09, 01:07pm reply
if the Norwegian's like it; it's a hit!
thebiggfrogg
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Joined: Jul 2007
stop the press!
02/09, 01:13pm reply
OMG, the nerds don't like it but the general public likes it? What's the world turning into? Oh right, people are buying intuitive devices so they don't have to go to nerds for tech support. =)
dliup
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Joined: Jan 2006
It is the future of computing
02/09, 02:15pm (1 reply) reply
The History is happening! This is much bigger than iPod or iPhone, believe me. This is what everybody has been waiting for. This is a revolutionary device with a revolutionary software running on it that everybody can use.
This is THE FUTURE OF COMPUTING.
Gepard
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Joined: Sep 2000
See, now this is what I don't understand...
02/09, 02:23pm reply
I'm continuing to see articles that are indicating that since iPad popularity has dropped, Apple should be ready to start cutting prices. How can an unshipped product's popularity start to drop? Only a handful of people have ever touched an iPad. Whoever is doing this poll must be walking up to people and asking them if they want to buy an iPad and even if they've never heard of it, the pollster can just chalk it up as a "no buy".
Apple's target focus for the iPad is not geeks, it's aimed that the low-tech consumer, so why should Apple give a damn what the tech-geeks think. If the 2% of the world's tech geeks don't like it then they can go buy the HP Slate. Some person was claiming a $499 2 lb. Asus T91MT netbook convertible provided more value to consumers and would outsell the iPad. All those flippety-flop convertibles have been tried before and consumers hated them. It's got weak hardware an nearly no simply downloadable e-book content to speak of. This is how tech-heads think. They're getting the best of both worlds, not the worst. Geeks think if you stick more c*** on a product the consumers will enjoy using it even more. No way is someone going to hold a T91MT in their hands to read with.
Just for reference only, not a comparison article:
http://www.autodigital.info/asus-eee-pc-t91mt-multi-touch-convertible-netbook-intel-atom-z520.html
iphonerulez
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Joined: Nov 2008
Duh...
02/09, 06:41pm reply
"Norwegian prices are also expected to be disproportionately high as a 16GB, Wi-Fi only iPad may cost 3790 Krone, or about $636."
We have 25% sales tax which is always included in the listed price for consumers... $499 + $124.75 = $623.75
The difference is "right price" roundup. Apple pricing has come way down over here since the 10x dollar of earlier years.
macnorway2000
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Joined: Nov 2006
comment title
02/10, 05:14am (1 reply) reply
Wait, this ridiculously crappy website still exists? I'm amazed that people can't find something better to read.
- 3790 Krone are $499 plus sales tax, exactly the same price
- Korea is not in South East Asia, but in East Asia, 2000 miles to the north.
- several retailers in a number of countries had to stop taking pre-orders because Apple "asked" them to, not because they were sold out on some fantasy allotment they couldn't even have secured as Apple is not taking orders from retailers yet.
- pre-orders are made by the fans, not the general public, just like fans tend to buy the bigger models.
Overall, you're producing horse dung, and you don't even have a shiny fur.
reverie
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Joined: Nov 2009
Oh yes.
02/10, 05:36am reply
Yes indeed.
- A
Fast iBook
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Joined: Mar 2003