back to article UK iPad Mini FRENZY: Queues stretch SEVERAL FEET from till

Astonishing queues at times reached as far as several feet from the tills in Glasgow's Apple store, as the Wi-Fi version of the iPad mini launched in the UK. Reader Joseph Heenan reported walking in to the Apple Store, buying the device and walking out "within a couple of minutes". Heenan added that "there were staff standing …

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  1. Mike Brown

    not a big deal.

    only fan boys will queue up. But fanboys will already have the bigger ipads and wont want the mini, hence no queue.

    1. NogginTheNog
      Facepalm

      Re: not a big deal.

      Why wouldn't they want a Mini?? They already have an iMac, a Macbook, an iPod Touch, an iPhone, an iPad... why not a Mini as well, maybe to keep in the car for emergencies...?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: not a big deal.

      The fanbois have already had their pockets emptied twice this year for the iphone 5 and ipad 3.

      There's just not enough to cover a new mini ipad and the ipad 4.

    3. LarsG
      Meh

      Probably

      Still sell more than the surface......

    4. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    iPad 4?

    So what's the deal? Haven't we only just got over the "new iPad"?

    1. Si 1

      Re: iPad 4?

      My conspiracy theory is that the A6 was always meant for the iPad 3 and that Apple hit delays producing it. This required a stop-gap which was the A5X. The only problem being it was fabbed at 45nm and the quad-core graphics needed to push the retina display created a very large and expensive chip.

      Therefore the costs of the chip meant it was always going to be a temporary solution that would be replaced with a more cost effective 32nm A6 as soon as was feasible. I believe that was the plan all along and is why the third gen iPad was just called "the New iPad" and the fourth gen is called the "iPad with Retina display" to avoid blatantly incrementing the version number twice in one year. That Apple also had a new dock connector to help justify updating the model is probably just lucky happenstance.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I for one am waiting...

    for the iPad Mini Mega

    Gotta catch 'em all!

    1. Steve Evans
      Thumb Up

      Re: I for one am waiting...

      LMAO!

    2. Ramazan
      Joke

      Re: iPad Mini Mega

      How about iPad XL/L(regular iPad)/M/S(iPad Mini)/XS instead?

    3. Steven Roper
      FAIL

      Re: I for one am waiting...

      Downvoted for posting a link to a geolocked video. Fail.

  4. jai

    surprised?

    this is a niche product - those that want a full tablet will already have an iPad. If you don't then you've got an iPhone. There definitely seems to be a market for the iPad mini, but if the highly unscientific sample set of people in my office is an indication, then the market is about 1/5th that of the full size iPad and a tiny fraction of that for the iPhone.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    small market

    I only know a few fanbois who will be out buying them because they just have to have it. Got an ipad, don't need a smaller version. That's what my phone is. If apple don't get their stuff together I'll be swapping out for android when they are no use.

  6. Senior Ugli

    Hang on - you take the piss when there is massive queues and genuine idiots queuing for devices. Now you are slating them because there isnt a big queue and no idiots to laugh at?

    1. ukgnome
      FAIL

      And your point is?

      One is the failure of the masses and one is a failure of the asses.

      Both are failures for different reasons.

    2. NogginTheNog
      Happy

      Because it's Apple:

      The Reg take the piss just because!

      1. Kebablog

        Re: Because it's Apple:

        It's the usual Leach crap article to be honest.

    3. GregC

      Perfectly reasonable...

      Massive queues = opportunity to point and laugh at the fanbois/iSheep/whatever you want to call them for being sad gits.

      No queues = opportunity to point and laugh at Apple because even the fanbois don't seem to give a toss about the Mini.

      Win-Win!

    4. Jedit Silver badge
      IT Angle

      "Now you are slating them because there isnt a big queue"

      When there are no queues for an Apple launch, it is not because Apple have stopped marketing massively overpriced, overhyped tat to fashion victims. It is because their naked greed has risen to the point that their customer base can no longer afford to buy all the tat - that, and the tat is so much tattier that even fashion victims won't buy it.

  7. JeffyPooh
    Pint

    Apple: "You MUST have Retinal display!"

    How about a GPS chip?

    How about the latest processor?

    How about an iPhone 5 aspect ratio?

    No sale.

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: Apple: "You MUST have Retinal display!"

      To answer your points...

      not everyone wants a device with a widescreen? My desktop is 2 24in 1920x1200 monitors with them rotated by 90deg giving 2400x1920., almost 5x4.

      Would anyone (geeks apart) notice if the CPU is not quite the latest 'hot-rod'?

      Many people already have GPS on their phone.

      (I do but I have disabled it from day 1. I don't want any stinking location based adverts.)

      Ok, so I own a MacBook Pro and an iPod Touch. both are several years old and do their jobs perfectly.

      I didn't get an iPad mini but a Kindle HD Fire. Nice but still not as good as the company iPad I had in a past job.

      Having to use iTunes does not bother me either.

      The HD fire ebooks are good but there is an iPad version as well so meh!

      Friday Lunch Beer Time and yes I can find my way to the pub without needing GPS

      1. Greg J Preece

        Re: Apple: "You MUST have Retinal display!"

        I didn't get an iPad mini but a Kindle HD Fire. Nice but still not as good as the company iPad I had in a past job.

        Errrr....aren't those two things at massively different price points?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Apple: "You MUST have Retinal display!"

        "not everyone wants a device with a widescreen?"

        Don't Apple devices have long screens rather than widescreens?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Apple: "You MUST have Retinal display!"

      "Apple: "You MUST have Retinal display!"

      How about a GPS chip?

      How about the latest processor?

      How about an iPhone 5 aspect ratio?

      No sale."

      How about a transformer! There, MUCH BETTER!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Apple: "You MUST have Retinal display!"

      GPS on wifi only - really - guess you might get lost going from the bog to the lounge?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Apple: "You MUST have Retinal display!"

        "GPS on wifi only - really - guess you might get lost going from the bog to the lounge?"

        There is such a thing as off line maps you know, like what all those sat navs use...?

        The WiFi Nexus 7 has GPS enabled.

        1. Ramazan
          Pint

          Re: WiFi Nexus 7 has GPS enabled

          Upvoted just for mentioning that simple fact. And Nexus costs $230 vs iPad S's $330. And it doesn't require you to use iTunes.

        2. P. Lee

          Re: Apple: "You MUST have Retinal display!"

          >There is such a thing as off line maps you know, like what all those sat navs use...?

          Do you really think apple want you to have anything offline - especially maps?

          GPS + wifi is useful because, you normally use your phone as a hotspot (one 3g contract), but you may want a larger screen than your phone. Or you may want to geolocate photo's - perhaps edited in iphoto.

          Or you may be on holiday in your hotel room and be planning your day's schedule. You'll use your phone on the move, but plan stuff on the bigger screen.

          1. Henry Blackman

            Re: Apple: "You MUST have Retinal display!"

            Tether the iPad to an iPhone and the iPad uses the iPhone GPS. Clever.

  8. Sir Runcible Spoon

    Sir

    iPad Mini sounds too much like a sanitary product for women.

    Picture the scene in Scotland then, man walks into office and proudly announces that he has just bought his first iPad mini.

    The response would be : <El Reg readers fill in the blanks here>

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sir

      It would have been better if they had changed the name of the regular iPad as well... to the iPad Maxi

      Bah dum... tsssh

      1. CmdrX3
        Happy

        Re: Sir

        ... or the Max iPad... or is there a trademark issue there :-)

  9. Tom 38
    Trollface

    Looks just like a Samsung launch.

    1. Tapeador

      re:

      I suspect Samsung users have lives. If I had five hours spare I'd rather spend it with my loved ones, or writing, or at a concert, than shivering alongside a bunch of identity-deficient virgins.

  10. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

    Apple's choice

    If you had a big expensive high margin product, would you want your customers to know that you also make a smaller cheaper low margin product? I can understand Apple keeping quiet about the iPad mini and only mentioning it to customers who say a full sized tablet is too big.

  11. squilookle
    Devil

    It does look a little bit gloomy there. Maybe they didn't want to go out in the cold and wet.

    Perhaps Apple are on the way down and people don't get excited anymore, or maybe they have saturated the market with slightly different products that overlap in function?

    Two of my friends have asked me if I knew anything about the iPad Mini in the last week or so. (Disclaimer: they already know I don't like Apple) I spared them the anti-Apple rant but just asked if they had seen/considered the Nexus 7 or one of the Kindle Fires. Both of them have looked into it and are edging toward the Kindle Fire. (Just to further prove I didn't try to influence them: I would have gone for the Nexus 7 myself).

    That's not scientific and probably not even relevant, but it will be interesting to see how the figures stack up after a while.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "It does look a little bit gloomy there. Maybe they didn't want to go out in the cold and wet."

      It's Scotland, it always looks like that :o)

      Personally I'm not that surprised. The mini only exists because the N7 and Kindle have proved so popular. Apple had to do a major u-turn on Jobs' famous "there will be no 7" ipad" statement and declarations the regular ipad is perfect for everyone. Nothing is perfect for everyone. They just seriously misjudged the number of people who wanted a smaller and/or cheaper device.

      Unfortunately Apple's famously high profit margin doesn't fit well in the budget sector, so the mini ends up underspec'ed and over priced.

      This means the only people who will choose to buy a mini are either:

      1) Mad (crazy)

      2) Already have a large investment in iOS apps

      or

      3) Non-tech savvy Guardian readers mislead by the hype.

      This photo shows the former and latter categories have failed to show up. This is not good news for Apple. Especially if category two do the maths/math and realise just how many Android apps they could purchase with the price difference between a Nexus 7/Kindle and the mini.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "so the mini ends up underspec'ed and over priced....This means the only people who will choose to buy a mini are either"

        How is that different to any other Apple products? They're all overpriced and under-spec'ed. Even the iPhone 5 has a lower spec than phones that launched 6 months before it.

        1. Steve Evans
          Happy

          Point taken.

          Maybe I should rephrase...

          "So the mini ends up so underspec'ed and over priced that even rabid fanboys starts to smell the coffee"

          Better?

      2. Ramazan

        Re: the only people who will choose to buy a mini are

        You know, iPad L (Large, i.e. regular version) is way too heavy at its 600 or 700 grams (my notebook which I use for writing this reply weights approx 500 grams), especially when you have something to compare to, like e.g. Kindle. Reading books on iPad is not that great experience, neither is it that unobtrusive when stuffed with its SmartCover into messenger bag etc. I'd like to have something lighter and smaller, but not that small as iPhone, so iPad S (Small, i.e. Mini version) would fit the bill (but only with GPS, and priced below $270).

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        > 3) Non-tech savvy Guardian readers mislead by the hype.

        3) Non-tech savvy Guardian readers mislead by the hype.

        Fixed the tautology for you.

        1. Another User
          Holmes

          Tautology - Pleonasm

          You meant a pleonasm. A tautology would be an illiterate analphabet, a free gift , RAM memory etc.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Tautology - Pleonasm

            Pleonasm (from Greek, pleon: more, too much) is the use of more words or word-parts than is necessary for clear expression: examples are black darkness, or burning fire. Such redundancy is, by traditional rhetorical criteria, a manifestation of tautology.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Tautology - Pleonasm

              So we can all conclude to agree that this is a demonstrating example of a tautological pleonasm?

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: Tautology - Pleonasm

                > So we can all conclude to agree that this is a demonstrating example of a tautological pleonasm?

                So we can all conclude to agree that this is a demonstrating example of a tautological pleonasm?

                Fixed the pleonasm for you.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Your friends do realise that there is a free Kindle app they can put on a Nexus 7 (or any other Andorid device)?

  12. big_Jim

    Overpriced

    This article is too expensive for me to read. I'm reading the Nexus article instead.

  13. Ian Bremner
    FAIL

    Wrong street

    Looks like your picture is of West Nile Street in Glasgow.

    Apples store and main entrance is one block over on Buchanan Street

    1. myob
      FAIL

      Re: Wrong street

      Can't you see the big glowing apple above the doorway? And the crowd control barriers stacked up as well.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wrong street

      "Wrong street

      Looks like your picture is of West Nile Street in Glasgow.

      Apples store and main entrance is one block over on Buchanan Street"

      Are you using crap maps app? iFail.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wrong street

      are you sure? it looks like the intersection of buchanan street and st vincent street to me.

    4. David Neil

      Re: Wrong street

      No, the pic is taken from an office oppsite the Clydesdale bank on St Vincent Street, the doorways lead up to the left of the pic look a bit like the Sony Store, but it's the spew covered pavement just down from All Bar One.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wrong street

      "Wrong street"

      Perhaps... according to Apple Maps.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Perhaps this is because 98% of the "trendy" wazzocks live around the London area (I should know)...

    You know the ones, all those "design" types who just "have" to have the latest idevice to compliment their fake job and fake social status.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Bitter.

  15. Alan Denman

    They removed a useful iPad for a smaller less useful one.

    Surely without the maps GPS etc it now has less appeal than the older bigger and easier to use one?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: They removed a useful iPad for a smaller less useful one.

      Maybe the apple fans are using apple maps so cant locate the stores. Maybe

    2. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Re: They removed a useful iPad for a smaller less useful one.

      "They removed a useful iPad for a smaller less useful one.

      Surely without the maps GPS etc it now has less appeal than the older bigger and easier to use one?"

      Neither have any appeal!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: They removed a useful iPad for a smaller less useful one.

        I don't see the need for GPS on a wifi only model unless you get lost in your office - oh GPS doesn't really work indoors does it? Sure if you want to use it up hills etc. you are out of luck but with no 3G or wifi many mapping applications would not work and if you need to use it out-and-about surely you would buy the 3G version WITH GPS?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Its part of the plan!

    Patent the long line, then patent the short line! Or the line of a curve! Soon the shops will be infringing apples unique thoughts mwahahahahaha

  17. Ikoth

    So it begins...

    ...iApathy

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Built in obsolescence

    Assuming that there is no magic in the mini iPad battery, it is going to have a life of 2-3 years. After which, replacing it involves removing glue, removing 16 tiny screws, and possibly wrecking the thing in the process.

    Why? A Blackberry Playbook or a Nexus 7 are both much cheaper and in a few years the battery can easily be replaced and they can be handed on to the kids/grandparents/local school/Oxfam. Samsung can make phones with replaceable batteries. So can Asus and RIM. Nokia used to.

    I just refuse to buy stuff from companies that build in obsolescence.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Built in obsolescence

      In 2-3 years time you probably won't be able to get an official / original battery anyway from those others so left with potentially iffy 3rd party ones.

      As for the battery only last 2-3 years - most modern lithium ion cells are rated at 1000 full discharge cycles to 80% capacity - these devices last up to 10 hours continuous use so for most people it's going to take several days of usage to flatten it.

      So let's imagine you fully discharge / charge it about 3 times a week - thats about 150 full charges a year so it could take many more years of usage to get to 80% capacity and even then the cell is not knackered.

      Imagine you fully discharge and charge it every day (a pretty mean task as it would involve using it for almost every waking moment on battery) - even then after 3 years the cell would be at around 80% capacity.

      Some lithium ion cells (mostly LiFEPO4) are actually rated at 2000+ full cycles to 80% but their power density is lower so they tend not to be used as much.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Built in obsolescence

      A blackberry playbook was obsolete before you took it out of the box. At least Apple seem to support their devices for a decent amount of time - trusty 3GS still going strong (and supported) after 4+ years now. Reality is the batteries in these devices are likely to last around 5+ years and after that you will be able to replace them but realistically things will have moved on so far you probably want to replace it.

      Saying that I know people with 4-5+ year old Macbooks that are still using them and can still get spares (batteries etc.) for them so I'm sure the same will be for the iPads and other makers tablet. Apple usually have a fixed cost for replacing stuff - a friends hard drive died - they replaced it with a 1Tb brand new one, reinstalled the OS and explained how to recover using Time Machine when they got home all for just over £100 inc. (basically the cost of the part itself at that time).

      1. handy

        Re: Built in obsolescence

        Playbook obsolete before you get it out of the box ? ...... Apple by contrast support their devices for a decent amount of time ?

        Advantages of Playbook

        More ram

        Better camera

        Better video

        multitasking

        Dual speakers

        Dual Microphone

        HDMI

        Rapid charging

        Similar

        CPU - 1 Ghz

        Resolution - Mini 163 PPI vs 170 PPI on playbook

        Advantages of Ipad

        Apps

        Battery life 10hrs (vs 7 on playbook)

        Given you can get a 64 gig playbook for £120 (16 gig for £80 or £90) you would have to be mad to pay £250 for a 16 gig ipad mini ! That is why there is no one in glasgow queuing.

        Btw as for BB support, in last month I have got two updates, and come Jan/Feb BB10 update is released on playbook, an OS which looks like its at least equal to IOS and is a good chance better (if previews are anything to go by)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Built in obsolescence

          You can get a Playbook 'cheap' as basically no-one really wants them - they will be almost certainly selling them at a LOSS so good luck with long term support. £120 is an expensive doorstop. Remember that HP tablet disaster - almost the same thing.

  19. M Gale

    It's not as if Apple have been shouting about the coming of the new Messiah like they have with their other launches.

    Besides, the Nexus 7 is just better, in every way. People who want a seven incher have probably already got that or a Tab.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Maybe they should have deep-fried it first?

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I've never seen the point of this queuing business.

    Why not wait for it to come to you? I don't even particularly value my time either.

  22. roblightbody

    Don't you just love...

    ... the neatly stacked rows of crowd control barriers at the entrance?

    Maybe people have finally realised, in a deep depression, that throwing your money at massively overpriced gadgetry using your credit card is not a sensible thing to do.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Don't you just love...

      Bitter. Perhaps you need to get a (better) job rather than whinge at others and how they choose to spend their cash.

  23. This post has been deleted by its author

  24. Lost in Cyberspace

    Hmm

    The mini is the cheapest iPad - so quite appealing to first timers. I can see a lot of parents buying this for 'kids homework' purposes. That's what happened when cheap slow 10" screen £199 netbooks with piddly keyboards came out.

    There are only a few instances I can think of where the smaller form factor is useful, on the whole it makes more sense to go for the larger one. Just a shame its £130 more for Retina and A6X, and twice as heavy.

    1. John 104

      Re: Hmm

      @ Lost in Cyberspace

      first timers may just be shocked by the price difference between oh, ALL the other 7 inch form factor tablets out there and the iPad mini. Hell, you could just go buy a big fat 10 incher ( in a few weeks) for just a little bit more.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Hmm

        But it's not an iPad - the joke is people with other tablets often refer to them as iPads - most likely they do not know better. It's all down to the apps - an iPad benefits from Apple support (far better than others) and the huge and better quality 'app' library. I read about actual tablet usage and they reckoned Apple tablet devices were responsible for something like 90% of the usage when their market share is less = people use them / use them more. These cheap tablets end up as fancy remote controls or left in the car as a media player - the iPads get 'used' far more as they work very well and have plenty of apps. Long term TCO is probably lower as they most likely have better longevity and cost per hour of usage is certainly going to be lower.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hmm

      "There are only a few instances I can think of where the smaller form factor is useful"

      True, but they're also *all* the instances where a tablet is inherently useful. If you're toting a 10" tablet (assuming you're not carrying it around in your hands so's everyone can see it), you're toting a bag. That bag can contain a laptop which'll do everything the tablet can PLUS flight sim/netbeans/loads of porn. On the whole it makes sense to go for the smaller one.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Hmm

        There are plenty of reasons for this smaller one - it's cheaper, smaller (obviously) and about half the weight - probably better for children to use. Would make a great e-reader. I'm surprised people still buy the original black and white kindles - of course I appreciate most books are black and white but these days do you not prefer COLOUR?

        At least they have the Fire now.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Hmm

          Nope, I prefer reading e-ink to LCDs. Never mind the fact that you can buy 4 Kindles for the price of an iPad Mini

        2. Greg J Preece

          Re: Hmm

          I'm surprised people still buy the original black and white kindles - of course I appreciate most books are black and white but these days do you not prefer COLOUR?

          A colour e-ink would be nice, sure, but given the choice of reading on an LCD or an e-ink, I'll choose the latter. They're about a billion times better for the job, plus have insanely lower power requirements, so the readers last longer than 10 hours.

  25. Joe K
    Childcatcher

    What about the flagship store

    Absolutely no-one at Covent Garden earlier, apparently: https://twitter.com/mmalex/status/264296937665212417/photo/1

    1. Steve Evans

      Re: What about the flagship store

      More security than fanboys... That's gotta be embarrassing.

    2. Steve Todd

      Re: What about the flagship store

      That's odd, when I inquired at Covent Garden this evening they were out of stock, and had been since this morning. SOMEONE must have been buying them.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I know plenty of people who want one of these devices but every single one has ordered it online or may pop into a store over this weekend - not sure many people queue these days.

  27. matthewjs

    It actually kind of makes sense...

    The kind of person who would queue outside an Apple store on the first day a new product goes on sale will undoubtedly already have an iPad, so it kind of makes sense that they wouldn't buy an iPad Mini, too. Even the most die-hard Apple fan would surely not, for example, buy an iPhone 5 AND a hypothetical smaller, less powerful version as well. The true test will come when said Apple fan decides to upgrade to a newer tablet, at which point I'm betting he'll choose the Mini over the regular size, simply because it's both cheaper and - as someone commented above - is a better size for doing "tablet-y" stuff on. That's why I reckon the Mini will end up cannibalising sales from the iPad, as well as being very popular amongst normal punters; and of course, normal punters can't be expected to queue up during working hours for something they can buy online or at a time that suits them. For better or worse, I think the iPad Mini will be around for a long time, probably as the best-selling tablet on the market. Personally I'm pleased, 'cos I have an 8-inch, 4:3 aspect-ratio Android tablet and it's almost impossible to find a decent case/stand for it, so bring on the flood of (non-official and therefore cheap) iPad Mini accessories!

    1. Greg J Preece

      Re: It actually kind of makes sense...

      Surely if you have an iPad and an iPhone then you already have the smaller, almost equally powerful version?

  28. Bad Beaver
    Devil

    Yawn

    To me, iPad mini is the first iPad that comes at a usable size, as in it is bigger than my phone but not so big that I could not just schlepp a Macbook Air instead which is a real computer that can get real work done. In fact, iPad mini would have been a great thing to replace my trusty Apple Newton MP2100 (which still runs like a charm on AA batteries, unlike certain other devices with built in obsolescence, thank you very much).

    Like, three years ago, looking at the specs. So I'd rather buy a Galaxy Note II if I had to.

    Face it: These days, Apple is being out-innovated by Nokia, out-featured by Samsung and now out-designed by Surface (no chance to play with it yet). When I saw the marketing video for the iPad mini I could not help but laugh. "Look, we worked really really hard… so that this thing could still be an iPad … but smaller!".

    Regardless, they will sell loads and loads come XMAS and schools / students will pick them up by the boatload.

  29. Nifty Silver badge
    Meh

    what about fangirlz?

    Already phoned the Apple store about availability so can get one for the OH (female of the species) - but the 3g version is some while away in the UK.

    Defo paying a premium for the sheer convenience of just restoring all the usual iPhone apps via iTunes.

    And the logo.

    But compared with most purchases in life, still quite logical.

  30. sleepy

    I queued . . .

    I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. I though I was being logical. I could wait until I'd read the reviews, and still be sure of getting the config I wanted on the first day, instead of a three week wait for it to arrive if I ordered online. The Glasgow photo at 9:00 am obviously ins't going to show a queue that was at 8:00am. It took me 15 minutes including queueing and being served in Exeter. The queue (about 60 at 8:00am) was almost gone when I left.

    I really like the first day queuing system. It's beautifully egalitarian. If you really want a new Apple product, you can have one, at the start of the first day, whoever you are. The inconvenience is surprising small (15 minutes in queue for me).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I queued . . .

      Same - 10 minutes in John Lewis got me mine and they were about to sell out.

  31. harrier9

    There was a line of about 20 people before 8am yesterday when I walked past the store.

    And to the idiot complaining about it looking gloomy. It's raining. All cities in the UK or abroad look gloomy when it rains. Derp.

  32. Andy Enderby 1
    Thumb Down

    "Let's see what gappens if we don't....."

    ....pay the professional renta-queue folks...."

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I doubt Apple are fussed

    The Mini was clearly never about generating long lines. It's more about filling a gap in their lineup than anything else and I'm sure it will sell (though perhaps not in the numbers Apple are hoping for).

  34. Grubby

    Brand Devaluation

    Apple's main selling point has been exclusivity, with the exception of the ipod the majority of their products have been priced just out of reach of everyone, imac, ipad, iphone etc have all been the most expensive versions of whatever they were (and no, they are not innovative one offs that have no competition, they're a computer a phone and a tablet). So releasing a cheaper version which is very obviously lower spec for the lower price pi55es off their current customer base because it's no longer as 'exclusive', and is seen as a bit of an insult to the potential new customer base, ooh the rich guy has just thrown me a bone...

    Imagine if Ferrari released the Ferrari mini for £5k, it's red of course, and has a Ferrari badge, but it's slower and doesn't have many of the features of the others. The guy who works at a supermarket decides to buy one, he now owns a Ferrari, and is parked next to the guy who owns the supermarket in the carpark, who also owns a Ferrari...

    Is devaluation a word? I'm not sure.

    1. Philip Lewis
      Pint

      Re: Brand Devaluation

      Like this?

      http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/ferraris-%C2%A330k-fiat-500-abarth

      And I don't care what anyone says, this car is cool, even for those of us that have one of the larger cousins.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Brand Devaluation

      Apple is a premium product but it's not trying to be exclusive - what a ridiculous statement when they probably have 50-75% of the already huge tablet market and the world and his dog own iPods?

  35. Badwolf

    I've got one - and its beautiful

    Meh - The queues where healthy in Central London yesterday

    I picked one up in Central London yesterday and its a beautiful little machine - especially compared to the cheapo crap being peddled by Amazon

    Amazon / Samsung / Google would give their eye teeth so see people queuing for their rubbish devices

    1. Greg J Preece

      Re: I've got one - and its beautiful

      Meh - The queues where healthy in Central London yesterday

      There's photographic evidence earlier in this thread that would contradict that. The rest of your post is just fanboy guff.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well the proof of the pudding and all that - they sold bucket loads - more than their own predications and more than the iPad 3 launch weekend. As with the iPhone 5 they probably made all they could by launch date and sold them all - if they could have made more they would. Will be interesting to see the sales figures for the holiday period.

    Also on a very rough straw poll I know plenty of people who are planning iPad Mini for Xmas pressies (when the more expensive iPad might have been too expensive - or large) and when asked they had thought about buying a kindle e-reader but now plan on the iPad Mini. I don't recon it being slightly more expensive is an issue for most people over the life of the unit.

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I picked one up from John Lewis on launch morning - just a short queue but a lot of people 'interested' - they had received their full allocation apparently for that day and I got the last 16Gb black one (they had a few of the larger capacity left in black) but the people in the queue behind me were probably going to take those. All white ones had already been sold. So considering they now sell via many more outlets they are probably still selling the same overall volume - or more.

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