Apple’s 4G iPad makes quiet Australian début

Added by on March 15, 2012

Apple’s new iPad, the device’s third revision, goes on sale in North America on Friday, yet it made an early appearance in Australia on Friday, local time. The time in Sydney, Australia is 15 hours ahead of the time in New York, USA.

While diehards around the world are lining up in front of Apple stores, hoping to pickup the third-generation iPad before their local Apple store sells out, a number of patient shoppers in Australia already have their iPad in hand.

The new iPad was not being sold directly by Apple – but by Australia’s national carrier Telstra, which started selling the much-anticipated device at two of its own stores on Friday at midnight (10:00 GMT/UTC), eight hours ahead of Apple’s launch in Australia.

Apple has been taking pre-orders since March 7, with shipping starting March 18, yet there is currently a delay of three weeks in shipping orders in the United States.

Influential reviewers say the third-generation iPad’s display is a significant improvement without changing the price of the popular tablet. Reviewers also said while the new iPad is not a complete revision, nor does it sport a lot of new features, it’s improvements are very noticeable when running various apps.

Industry analysts say Apple could sell 65 million iPads this year alone – the company has sold 55 million iPads since it was launched in 2010. Another group of analysts  expects worldwide tablet sales to increase to about 325 million per year by 2015, with Apple dominating the market.

Shares of Apple, Inc briefly surpassed $600 for the first time on the Nasdaq exchange on Thursday, local time. A single share of Apple currently costs more than the Wi-Fi iPad.