The iPad 2 far queue

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 21 March 2011 11:02

Your IT - Home IT

Reports of continuing queues in the US for Apple's iconic new iPad 2 show that the tablet is, duh, winning!

While Android tablet makers wish they could join a far queue too of overly impatient Xoomers, a queue which is effectively non-existent, the baby boomers and their kids and grand kids all seem to want their very own piece of the crunchy kingdom.

And why not? The iPad 2 is thinner, lighter, faster, cooler, smoother, shinier, more capable, more visual, more photographic and photogenic, and if the Australian dollar's strength has any say in the matter, it'll even be cheaper for Aussies when the final pricing is announced sometime this week.

Ah yes, March 25. It's now mere days away, indeed it is the last working day of this week, and unless Apple decides to make us wait a bit more as it has done for those in the Czech Republic, where they face another month's agonising wait for the iJesusTablet 2 to descend from the heavens, the iPad 2 will be down under soon.

There's no word yet on when Apple will officially announce local pricing. While this pricing is undoubtedly already set in stone at Apple's Australian and Cupertinian HQs, Apple loves to do things its way - we probably won't know pricing until sometime on Thursday - unless Apple decides to enlighten us all sooner.

Of course, we know the previous pricing, which was set when Australia's dollar was worth about 30% less than it is now, so there is genuine hope that the most expensive 64GB 3G iPad 2 will come in under $999 this time, perhaps even closer to the $900 mark than the $1000 mark, but that's probably a tad too hopeful.

After all, despite the so-called 'parity' that the Aussie dollar and the US dollar have reached, costs in the US for just about everything are lower, and costs for just about everything else are higher in Australia.

So even with parity, there's no obligation for Apple to precisely match US pricing, partially because, as noted, the cost of doing business in Australia just costs more than it costs in the US, and because of that, higher pricing than US pricing is to be expected.

Continued on page two, please read on!