Apple Inc staged a low-key launch of its latest iPad in China on Friday, free of the chaotic scenes that plagued the tech darling’s previous product debuts in its most promising growth market.<\/p>\n
The calm, orderly queues in Shanghai and Beijing came as a surprise to many Apple fans in China, who are used to standing overnight in snaking queues with scalpers to get their hands on the latest product.<\/p>\n
“I’m very surprised that there is no line. I thought there was going be a long line so I came over a bit earlier to pick it up,” said an IT worker, Sun Xufei, who was the first in line of a small queue of around 20 people waiting outside the Shanghai Lujiazui Apple store.<\/p>\n
The launch of the latest iPad, which features a sharper display and better camera than previous versions of the wildly popular tablet, comes weeks after Apple paid $60 million to a Shenzhen-based company to settle a trademark lawsuit over the iPad name.<\/p>\n
Apple adopted an online reservation system that allowed it to control the flow of people to its stores and avoid a repeat of the riotous iPhone 4S launch in January, when one of its flagship stores in Beijing was pelted with eggs by scalpers who had turned rowdy.<\/p>\n
“This method is much better because everyone’s time is precious,” said a 33-year-old entrepreneur who only give his last name and Zhong.<\/p>\n
Apple has two retail stores in Beijing, three in Shanghai, one in Hong Kong and a network of authorized resellers. Chinese government officials said the company is looking to open two more in the major cities of Chengdu and Shenzhen.<\/p>\n
Demand for Apple products is so high that many choose to buy from unauthorized resellers who peddle smuggled goods or from online stores that sell parallel imports.<\/p>\n
China is a key growth area for Apple, and Chief Executive Tim Cook has often said that the company has only scratched the surface in the region. Sales in Greater China – mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan – increased threefold to $7.9 billion in the second quarter ended on March 31.<\/p>\n
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