Shops overwhelmed by iPad2 sales

 

Saturday, Apr 30, 2011

Gulf News

Dubai Apple’s official unveiling of the iPad2 tablet in the UAE yesterday was heartily embraced by consumers who cleaned out shelves at retailers across the country, leaving some store employees overwhelmed by the rush.

The new tablet that is 33 per cent thinner and 15 lighter than its predecessor was in high demand as evident from throngs of shoppers who descended upon iPad2 kiosks at electronics stores in Dubai.

After several hours of brisk sales, CarrefourCarrefour in the Mall of the Emirates only had a handful of more basic iPad2 tablets still available.

“We thought we had enough stock for weeks but everything is gone. What you see here is what you get,” a CarrefourCarrefour electronics department manager told a jostling group.

Better prices

Impatient shoppers demanded to know the store’s prices on different variations of the new iPad2 while clutching newspaper advertisements to compare prices. “Are you offering the same prices shown here?” one man asked a CarrefourCarrefour employee. “Can you give us better prices than this?” The employee said he couldn’t change the prices. It appears the prices of the six models of the iPad2 were the same in several popular stores checked by Gulf News yesterday morning.

CarrefourCarrefour, Jumbo ElectronicsJumbo Electronics and Plug-Ins offered the same prices such as Dh2,149 for the 16GB iPad2 with Wi-Fi only. The price for the 16GB model with Wi-Fi and 3G (that allows a SIM card to be inserted for permanent portable online access) was Dh2,649 at all three stores.

A 32GB model with Wi-Fi only set back consumers Dh2,549 while the price for the 32GB model with Wi-Fi and 3G was Dh3,099.

Shoppers paid Dh2,999 for the 64GB model with Wi-Fi and Dh3,599 for the 64 GB model with Wi-Fi and 3G.

A salesperson at Jumbo ElectronicsJumbo Electronics told a small crowd of iPad2 buyers that the Apple tablets were moving very fast. “I’ve sold 20 this morning already,” he said to people mobbing the iPad2 display inside the store. He said that many people waited until yesterday to buy the iPad2 rather than buy grey market models earlier.

By Derek Baldwin?Buiness Features Reporter

c Gulf News 2011. All rights reserved.

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