Apple-mania Irish style for new iPad

AT 11:30pm on a fresh spring evening recently a small queue was forming outside the Currys PC World store in Swords. The queue was easily dwarfed by those waiting to enter the massive Wright Venue nightclub across the street. But those waiting for the doors of the electronics retailer to open at midnight were going to be spending an average of €600 to get their hands on the latest piece of must-have technology; the new iPad.

Welcome to Apple-mania Irish style. Two Currys PC World stores in Dublin and one in Cork opened to meet demand for the upgraded tablet computer. Based on what this reporter witnessed in the Swords store, about 120 new iPads were sold between midnight and 1am.

Just a few hours later the Apple faithful were lining up outside Arnotts in Dublin city centre which was opening its technology department at 8am such was the pre-launch interest. The Irish demand for the new iPad is not out of synch with the rest of the world. The Californian company sold three million in its first weekend on sale in the US, UK and 10 other countries.

“I never thought I’d be queuing to buy an Apple product,” said Deirdre Moore who stood in line in Swords. But with an upcoming holiday to Australia she wanted an iPad for the long trip and knew that by heading along on the first night she would be guaranteed to get one.

Moore also admitted that reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Apple founder Steve Jobs had partly inspired her to buy her first product from the company.

Ian Brannigan, an Apple solutions consultant who has been working in-store at Currys PC World for 3½ years, admitted to being surprised at the level of interest the new iPad generated. Particularly given the two previous launches had been at more convenient times of the day for customers.

Ask Brannigan for a demo of the new tablet, however, and he slips into his “brand ambassador” role for Apple, showing off the high-def retina display, improved camera features and impressive gaming ability.

This winning combination of relentless enthusiasm and attention to detail shows no sign of waning at Apple even following the death last year of founder and visionary Steve Jobs.

It’s widely accepted that Jobs and his senior lieutenants will have discussed Apple’s product roadmap for the next five years in some detail. In fact you can expect that products which appear for at least the next year will carry his fingerprints.

All of which suggests that Apple’s dominance of both the smartphone and tablet market is not going away any time soon. This week Brian White, an analyst with the previously little known Topeka Capital Markets, set a price target of $1,001 for the stock within a year, which would make Apple the first company to be worth $1 trillion.

In the sort of self-fulfilling prophecy that would have pleased Jobs, Apple stock hit a new high of over $630 after the report was published.

Apple competitors undoubtedly ground their teeth in frustration.