iPad 2 Weekend: 70% Buyers New to iPad? Individual Resellers Ship Internationally

[MacRumors]

The iPad 2 launched on Friday to massive lines and quickly became sold out. Fortune reports on a surveys conducted by Piper Jaffray's Gene Muster surrounding the iPad 2 launch.

According to Munster's survey of 236 respondents in New York and Minneapolis lines, he found that 70% of iPad 2 buyers were new to the iPad. Assuming this survey can be generalized to the iPad 2 buying audience, Munster believes this high percentage of new customers as a positive sign for Apple's continued growth in the tablet market:"We believe this shows Apple is expanding its base of iPad users, which is critical to maintaining its early lead in the growing tablet market. As the user base grows Apple's lead widens, and the company has a proven track record of building unmatched brand loyalty, which we believe will be a potent combination as the tablet market evolves."Meanwhile, one of the reasons that the iPads were in such high demand on opening weekend was due to international resellers who were buying up as many iPads as possible to ship to other countries.

MICGadget profiles one such Hong Kong reseller who took orders for 200 units before the launch and prepared eight couriers in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles to stand in line and then hop on a plane back to Hong Kong. The reseller was marking up units to $1025 for the base 16GB Wi-Fi model and up to $1525 for the Wi-Fi/3G 64GB model.

ChipChick also was contacted by a couple of different Russian resellers who had a similar scheme with up to 8 line-holders in place in New York City to buy the early iPad 2 models.

Apple is expected to replenish stock on Monday to its retail stores. Online ordering is still available but new orders are currently seeing 3-4 week delays.

Article Link: iPad 2 Weekend: 70% Buyers New to iPad? Individual Resellers Ship Internationally

 

[shartypants]

That should bump up initial sales a little.

 

[alsec]

Hmm...should I get in line now??

 

[princealfie]

The epitome of greed eh?

 

[Full of Win]

Explains why the GSM model was in such high demand.

 

[EvolutionXGSR]

China knock-off in 3...2...1...

 

[Malithion]

Need more numbers for this to really mean anything.

 

[slu]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

I am an all Apple house. Both my wife and I use Macs, iPods and iPhones, we have an Airport Extreme, two Airport Expresses, and a 1st generation Apple TV. This is our first iPad, so this does not surprise me.

 

[jlasoon]

Explains why the GSM model was in such high demand.

Yea because the Verizon iPad is everywhere to be found.

 

[AriX]

64MB? You mean 64GB.

 

[lsvtecjohn3]

The epitome of greed eh?

Don't hate the player hate the game. It's called a free market and he's taking advantage of it. Nobody being forced to buy those iPad's from him.

 

[Bonfire]

Good for him. Capitalism at it's finest.

 

[epictempo]

Wish I had the funds to do the same. Curious on how MR knows that retail stores are replenishing on Monday or is it just an obvious guess?

 

[haruhiko]

Unfortunately my friend in the States could not compete with these scalpers.

He stood in line that day and was told that all stocks were sold out. He went back home and ordered online and the shipping time was increased to 3-4 weeks when he ordered.

 

[saving107]

According to Munster's survey of 236 respondents in New York and Minneapolis lines, he found that 70% of iPad 2 buyers were new to the iPad. Assuming this survey can be generalized to the iPad 2 buying audience, Munster believes this high percentage of new customers as a positive sign for Apple's continued growth in the tablet market

Why does Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray always continue to get coverage when he has always proven to be wrong?

Their was at least 500 people in line at the Apple Store in my town and he only surveyed 236 people total and came to the conclusion the 70% of people in that line represented an accurate estimate for sales around the country, how does he figure?

 

[mrat93]

I got in line at about 3:20. I'd say I was around number 300 in line. I was next to a guy from Sweden. He told me how he makes a living reselling electronics worldwide. He said that last year he bought about 300 iPads around launch time and flew them overseas to sell to retailers. He made about $150 each ($45,000 total.) He also buys factory unlocked iPhones in China and Canada and resells them here. Pretty interesting guy...

 

[*LTD*]

We're getting it on the 25th.

So . . . white iPad or black iPad? Which do you (or would you) prefer?

 

[Dstopsie]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

Black! I thought the white looked a little yellowish to me.

 

[314631]

We're getting it on the 25th.

So . . . white iPad or black iPad? Which do you (or would you) prefer?

I'm hearing the international launch may be pushed back by at least 2-3 weeks, basically repeating what happened last year. Apple will once again want to focus production on meeting demand in its most important market first.

 

[arn]

Wish I had the funds to do the same. Curious on how MR knows that retail stores are replenishing on Monday or is it just an obvious guess?

A bit of a generalized guess I suppose. But my Apple Store told me to check back on Monday for stock.

arn

 

[Full of Win]

Yea because the Verizon iPad is everywhere to be found.

In the past few days I've read more post of users that wanted GSM iPads and could not find them rather than users who wanted CDMA iPads.

 

[blucurv]

A bit of a generalized guess I suppose. But my Apple Store told me to check back on Monday for stock.

arn

Same here.

I asked in the SF flaship store and was told to check on Monday, which is when they would receive a new shipment.

 

[todd03blown]

5 of the first 6 people in line with me at best buy were all first time iPad owners including me. Seems like these #'s might be fairly accurate?

 

[twiggy0]

I got in line at about 3:20. I'd say I was around number 300 in line. I was next to a guy from Sweden. He told me how he makes a living reselling electronics worldwide. He said that last year he bought about 300 iPads around launch time and flew them overseas to sell to retailers. He made about $150 each ($45,000 total.) He also buys factory unlocked iPhones in China and Canada and resells them here. Pretty interesting guy...

Lucky you, kind of jealous you got an opportunity like that, would of loved to know his knowledge.

On another note, how does the guy manage to get 300 iPads when the limit is two per person? And even if he pays people to stand in lines, 150 people? Seems like he has quite the army. You'd need a lot of connections to be able to get that many people working for you

 

[cashmoney]

It's ironic that the iPad was made in China, shipped to the US, bought in the US, and brought back to China. @.@