IPad Sales Begin, but Few People Are in Front of the Stores

SAN FRANCISCO — Four days ago, all of the Best Buy stores in California began to distribute numbers to neatly organize the “queues” of fans. On the other coast, the most famous Apple store, on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, arranged long barriers on the pavement in front of Central Park. Everybody was ready for the iPad, the new miraculous toy invented by the genius of Steve Jobs, whose sales began at nine in the morning. It was a highly anticipated event because the iPad promises a new technological revolution: Half mini-computer, half iPod; with over 150,000 applications available, it claims to be the most evolved digital reader for newspapers, magazines and eBooks.

The crowd of fans appeared, but it was not as massive as one might think. Considering all of the famous stores in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston, the crowds that arrived the night before in order to be the first people at the iPad’s release in the morning were not comparable to the ones of three years ago at the launch of the iPhone. At that time, thousands of people slept out in the open in front of the Apple stores. On the eve of the iPad’s release, the fans were definitely fewer. One possible reason could be that this time Apple organized an efficient pre-sale on the internet, allowing people to reserve the iPad and have it delivered to their homes, which thins out the army of customers having to stay in line, in the open, in front of the stores.

Yet, the iPad still accomplished an enormous feat. On the first day of its sales, the most famous weekly magazines in the U.S., Time and Newsweek, dedicated their covers to its release. In the past few years, only the “star” Obama could conquer the covers of the two rival magazines at the same time. Is that a sign of the close attention the media industry is paying to Steve Jobs’ latest creation? Among the most promising applications for the digital player are those that deal with the press. Time’s director, Rick Stengel, says that, in the world of information, most people see the iPad as if it were the tablet of Jesus, the salvation. And in Newsweek, Daniel Lyons, the technology expert famous for his blog entitled “The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs,” was especially enthusiastic. According to Lyons, the iPad will become your television, your newspaper and your bookcase.