The FINANCIAL — iPad sales reached 250 units in Georgia since iPhone Service Ltd introduced the product on 19 April.
The tablet computers are imported in small stocks from the United States. Official dealer of apple products in Georgia, Hamaki, says Apple has postponed the international sales of iPads till the end of May, due to increased demand in the USA. That is why iPads are still not available in the official store.
iPhone Service Ltd imports iPads from America bringing the company a 3-4 times increase in sales.
“On the first day of sales we sold 35 iPads in Georgia. At first we imported 93 units of iPads in Georgia,” said Mamuka Margishvili, Director of iPhone Service Ltd.
At this stage we have in total imported 272 units of the iPad and there are only 25 left available for sale. Moreover, we are expecting an additional 75 units in the next few days,” said Margishvili.
In the interview with The FINANCIAL Natalia Davitashvili, CEO of Hamaki LLC, Apple Authorized Dealer in Georgia, said that they were expecting to have iPads in stock at the end of April. However Apple has postponed the international sales of iPads till the end of May, due to increased demand in the USA.
“Overdue iPads will harm consumers and the market in general, since grey importers will
be taking advantage of the high demand and selling scarce units at unreasonably high prices,” said Davitashvili.
iPhone Service Ltd offers the iPad 16 GB+ WiFi costing 1,549 GEL and iPad 32GB+ WiFi costing 1,749 GEL. The iPad 64GB+ WiFi will be available in the store in the nearest future. The imported tablet computers cost 20% more than its original price due to VAT applied on import.
“The difference between models is only in the memory, everything else – the size, capacity, programmes, are the same for each model,” said Margishvili.
According to Davitashvili, the price for iPads at Hamaki store will be circa 700 USD (1,225 GEL) and over 200 people are already waiting for the iPad’s arrival at the Hamaki store.
“The target market of iPads includes all categories of people, this technical innovation conquers the hearts of teenagers and adults alike.
The iPad is quite quick, with an easy sensor, multi-functional. By touching the screen you can conduct many operations, this is necessary for businessmen as well as for teenagers. These above mentioned details govern the high demand for the iPad,” said Margishvili.
Apple statement
Although we delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week, demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks as more people see and touch an iPad. We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for the iPad 3G model for delivery by the end of April.
Faced with the surprisingly strong US demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10. We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason—the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far.
The price of the iPad starts from 499 USD. Thousands of special applications were built specially for the iPad, from education to games.
The visual side of the iPad is also attractive. It only weighs 700 grams and is 1.3 centimetres thin. The screen is 25 centimetres measured diagonally.
The battery life for an iPad is up to 10 hours, the company used the same lithium-polymer battery technology they developed for Mac notebook computers.
Moreover, the A4 chip inside the iPad runs a third faster than most mobile processors. Recently Apple announced the purchase of Intrinsity, a chipmaker that created the speed technology, for 121 million USD.
Chinese iPads have also appeared in the market, the fake iPads are sold from 290 USD, around half as much as the original iPad.
