HONG KONG (AFP) – The iPad 2 went on sale in countries across Asia and beyond Friday as Apple's updated gadget entered an ever more crowded market.
Apple's original iPad defined the tablet computer market and was swiftly followed by offerings from the tech industry's main players, from Samsung and Dell to BlackBerry maker RIM and Toshiba.
A late arrival to the tablet party was Sony, which only this week announced its own tablets a full year after the original iPad went on sale.
Now Apple is moving into round two of the battle of the tablets with a lighter, thinner, camera-equipped version of their original machine.
First in line in a queue of around 400 rain-soaked people outside an Apple store in Hong Kong was 16-year-old mainland Chinese student Dandy Weng, who travelled to the city from neighboring Guangdong province for a device.
''I have waited for over 12 hours and haven't slept in 48 hours – I'm very tired but excited,'' he told AFP.
''I will be the first in China to have the iPad 2,'' he said, waving a ticket to back up his claim of being number one in line.
''I'm speechless, it's so exciting,'' he said after purchasing two tablets. ''I can't say how happy I am right now.''
Queues also formed outside retailers in the Philippine capital Manila.
John Quindo, 39, was first in line after standing patiently outside an Apple reseller for three hours.
''I'm excited because the Philippines is usually late (with Apple product releases),'' he told AFP.
One sales executive for another Apple store in the city, who asked not to be named, told AFP: ''We had more requests for reservations than what we have in stock now.''
In South Korea, 100 invited customers lined up from midnight at the central Seoul branch of KT, a local partner for iPhones and iPads.
In Hong Kong, prices range from HK$3,888 ($500) for the 16GB Wi-Fi only model to HK$6,488 for the 64 GB Wi-Fi and 3G model.
A long queue snaked around the Apple shop in a major downtown shopping centre, with several groups of shoppers loading as many as a dozen iPads onto trolleys.
Shopping mall staff handed out raincoats to soaked Apple fans who had forgotten to bring an umbrella.
''The weather is really terrible, but it's well worth it,'' Nigel Law, a 19-year-old student, told AFP. ''It has been a long time coming – a little rain is nothing.''
Those trying to buy an iPad 2 online via Apple's Hong Kong site, however, will have to wait a little longer – all versions of the gadget were already out of stock before midday.
At an Apple authorized retail shop in Singapore, only 100 devices were available for sale and most official Apple retailers in Malaysia quickly sold out of the iPad 2.
''Each of our flagship stores had 600 devices each on sale and they ran out just like that,'' an official for a major Apple retail chain in Kuala Lumpur said.
Trade in ''grey market'' second generation iPads remained brisk in computer malls in the city such as Low Yat Plaza.
''We can charge more because there is a lot of demand and there is still not so much supply in Malaysia,'' seller Ang Chee Wei, 34, told AFP, adding that he had sold more than 20 of the devices so far.
''I bring in my iPad 2 from the US so I can still make some money until there are more iPads on the market.''
The iPad 2 was also launched in Japan on Thursday after a month's delay caused by the devastating quake and tsunami. A Wi-Fi only version of the iPad 2 will be available in China on May 6.
It also hit stores Friday in India, Israel, Macau, South Africa, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, after being first released in the United States on March 11.
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