Still widely available...?

Hard to know, but I think it's a combination of there being pre-orders, which there wasn't for iPad 2, and more stock being available on launch day.

Certainly devices seemed to be widely available even later on launch day.

I'm from Australia but visiting the States, landed in New York on the 15th. On the afternoon of the 16th decided to walk past the Fifth Ave store to see what crowds were like and it was chaotic. On the 17th I went to the Grand Central store and they had plenty of stock at 4 in the afternoon. Stood in line for about five minutes, about 6 people in front of me, and got the exact model I wanted. After the short supplies last year I was certain I wouldnt get one so close to launch day, but it looks like with online orders and better supplies this launch has gone incredibly well!

stridemat said:

In the uk at least it feels like they are better supplied. I Don't know anyone who hasn't been able to find one if they wanted one.

Click to expand...

Apple's UK online store is still saying 2-3 weeks for all models - so presumably they're either being very conservative about that or they're holding stocks back for the B&M stores.

I was at my Apple store at 10:00am and exchanged an AT&T for a Verizon and I got the second to last one. The Apple guy said that Apple gave them a LOT more than last launch. They only had 500 iPads last time and they might have has 500 of each SKU this time!

majordude said:

I was at my Apple store at 10:00am and exchanged an AT&T for a Verizon and I got the second to last one. The Apple guy said that Apple gave them a LOT more than last launch. They only had 500 iPads last time and they might have has 500 of each SKU this time!

Click to expand...

That is so OLD news....

Based on what apple saw with the last two iPads I think they learned and had more supply from what I can tell and what I have read.