Irish fans queue for new iPad

The new iPad may be the third iteration of Apple’s record breaking device but that doesn’t seem to have cooled the ardour of fans as people queued outside Currys and PC World stores in Dublin and Cork last night to be amongst the first to get their hands on the tablet computer.

Apple’s third generation iPad officially went on sale in 24 countries, including Ireland, at 8am today, but three Currys and PC World stores got the nod from Apple to open just after midnight.

At 11.30pm, eight hardy souls were queuing outside the branch in Swords, Co Dublin outnumbered by the staff inside waiting to serve them, although the numbers swelled to close to 30 by midnight.

The first through the door was Andrew Morgan from Glasnevin. Clearly a technology fan, he was buying his first iPad but was waiting until the model with Retina display came on the market. The display, also featured on the latest iPhone, has four times more pixels than the iPad 2 and about one million more more than the average high definition TV.

Mr Morgan said he would be buying the additional warranty protection as his three-year-old twins had dropped his iPhone 4 in a pond.

He had been queuing since 8.50pm but was joined shortly afterwards by Simon and Jiyon O’Doherty, who bought one of the tablet computers each. Mr O’Doherty said he was replacing his iPad 2 bought last year and wanted to make sure he got one in advance of a holiday next week.

Just over 100 new iPads were sold at the three Currys stores that opened until 1am. “There were 150 people queuing outside the Tottenham Court Road store in London last week when it went on sale in Britain, so I think it compares well,” said Peter Gallogly, commercial director of DSG Ireland, which operates the Currys and PC World brand here.

Apple announced the new iPad, with improved cameras, a more powerful processor and support for faster mobile networks, earlier this month Over three million of the devices were sold on its first three days driving Apple’s share price to over $600.

The new iPad is available in a range of configurations with prices from €479 to €799.