iPad 2 Arrives in Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore & Eight Other Countries This Week
Apple® today announced that iPad® 2, the second-generation of its breakthrough post-PC device, will arrive in Japan on Thursday, April 28 and Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and eight additional countries on Friday …
Context & Ripple Effects
The iPad 2's second international wave follows the template Apple set with the original device's nine-country expansion in May 2010, only at larger scale: the second-generation model debuted in 25 countries on March 25 behind lines BGR described as ridiculous, after February reports of sellouts and early sales at some European retailers had already signaled supply running ahead of demand.
The timing stacks on a busy Apple news day: the company also confirmed the long-delayed white iPhone 4 goes on sale tomorrow at its own stores plus AT&T and Verizon Wireless outlets, while separately denying it tracks user iPhone locations — so the tablet rollout lands mid-cluster of product and privacy headlines.
First-order effects
- Buyers in Japan (April 28) and Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and eight further countries (Friday) get the iPad 2 roughly five weeks after the 25-country March launch, with the February European sellouts suggesting store allocation, not price, decides who gets one.
- AT&T and Verizon Wireless take delivery of the white iPhone 4 the same week, giving both carriers a refreshed flagship phone and the hottest tablet in the same retail window.
Second-order effects
- Tablet vendors that have yet to ship competitively in these twelve markets must position against a device whose March debut drew crowds across 25 countries, raising the bar for launch-day traction.
- Concentrating the phone and tablet refresh cycles into one quarter pushes heavy foot traffic and inventory risk onto Apple's retail partners and carrier stores simultaneously.
Third-order effects
- If the cadence holds — nine countries in May 2010, 25 in March 2011, twelve more this week — Apple has institutionalized a staged global launch that converts each iPad generation into a months-long demand wave rather than a single-day event.
- Each country wave compounds an iOS installed base spanning iPhones, iPods and iPads that Apple can later monetize through services such as the cloud music offering it is rumored, per unconfirmed reports, to price freemium.
The trend: Apple is converting each iPad generation into a staged, multi-month global rollout that builds its installed base country by country instead of all at once.