On Friday, Apple debuted their iPad tablet in nine countries. Apple already pushed back international sales a month with the explanation that the demand in the U.S. was too great to go international at that time.
May 28th saw the iPad on sale in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Although relatively long lines were reported in the U.K., Germany and Australia, the American debut stole a lot of the thunder from the international debuts. ReadWriteWeb France editor, Fabrice Epelboin said in that country the press more than consumers are interested in what the iPad can do.
“The press here is already dead, so all of them are praying for the iPad to resurrect them, but after a few weeks, they are starting to realize things aren’t that simple. The US iPad release sounded like a big PR party in all the french press, but today’s official launch in France looks more like a hangover.”
About a month ago, Apple had sold half a million devices and said inventory would not tolerate opening to foreign markets as soon as they had planned. Inventory is still an issue, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“Analysts estimate that Apple will sell about 1.7 million iPads in the April-to-June quarter and five million for the year world-wide.”
Analysts also anticipate that about a third of Apple’s sales will be U.S.-based and the rest shared with the remaining global market.
With over a million iPads sold, it has been described as “the fastest consumer product growth to the $1 billion revenue mark in history.”
