Modest crowds greet iPad mini's release
The iPad mini is a slimmed-down version of Apple’s popular tablet, so in a way, it’s fitting that Friday’s release brought out smaller crowds when compared to previous Apple product roll-outs.
Joel MathisJoshua Coleman Wing, an IT manager with Mastery Charter Schools in Philadelphia, shows off his new iPad mini outside the Walnut Street store.
Crowds showed up at Apple Stores around the country for the iPad mini, but not in the numbers they had for other recent iPad and iPhone launches. Blame it on product fatigue—the iPad mini and the fourth-generation iPad arrived on retail shelves a little less than eight months after the last big iPad release. Or, if you’re on the east coast, blame it on Hurricane Sandy, which hit the northeast hard earlier this week. With millions still without power, particularly in New Jersey and New York, lining up to purchase a new iPad wasn’t high on a lot of people’s priority lists. (Indeed, two Apple Stores in Lower Manhattan remained closed Friday as a result of Sandy.)
In Philadelphia, for example, there was nowhere near the hundreds-deep line that greeted previous iPad launches at the Walnut Street Apple Store. Instead, about two dozen people huddled near the store’s entrance an hour before opening, with half of those there early to buy iPhones. The overall line grew slightly as the 8 a.m. opening drew closer. In another sign of the muted launch, Apple Store employees skipped traditional festivities like running down the long line of customers and offering high fives.
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http://www.macworld.com/article/2013469/modest-crowds-greet-ipad-minis-release.html
