By Chris Chang, posted Apr 29, 2011 at 2:02 PM, 3,618 views,

iPad 2 Launch in Hong Kong Draws HUGE Crowds (video!)

iPad 2 is finally available in Hong Kong today! Long lines are generated outside reseller stores while it’s raining heavily… Some customers even waited in line for over 12 hours. Awesome. Video and lots of photos after the break!!!

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Hundreds of people lined up outside the Apple Premium Reseller Store we visited, Studio A. Just in case this is the first time you hear of Studio A, it’s Taiwan’s number one Apple Premium Reseller store and the boss is Foxconn CEO’s little brother. The launch is crazy. You need to wait in line at the backstairs if there are 30 people in front of you. Backstairs is super stuffy and we see customers sweating! Luckily, the store employees distributed bottles of water to everyone!

Some late customers need to queue at the car park.

If they do not give these for free, someone may faint!

Store opens at 10am.

Hooray!

Next, let’s take a look at Mong Kok, the most popular shopping area in Hong Kong. There are six stores in Mong Kok launching the iPad 2 today, and each store only provides 50-100 iPad 2s.

The biggest iPad 2 poster I have ever seen! (^O^)

Look at the notice first!

Purchase limited to 1 set per person per day. And package will be opened for checking while purchase. Could this stop the evil scalpers?

It’s raining and everyone is looking for shelter, while waiting for the store to open.

Well, if there’s an Apple store here, customers do not need to bring their own umbrellas, Apple store employees will provide a nice black umbrella with Apple logo!

It’s almost 9am and more customers are waiting in line, up to a hundred.

Since there are 6 stores in the area, just head to the next store if you find yourself being a latecomer.

You can see huge crowds outside every store. Bystanders are talking on phones to ask for the reselling price to Mr Lo. = =

Weather is terrible.

We think most of the customers here are scalpers, they aim to earn easy profits by seliing their iPads to Mr Lo. However, they must get the 3G model since the grey market dealers offer a higher price to accept 3G models. And it must be white! You get to earn HK$700-900 ($100) by selling one.

This guy is the first in line!!! He is an Apple fanboy, not a scalper. He started to wait in line at 8pm yesterday, and waited over 12 hours to grab a 16GB 3G model.

Real excited! (^O^)

Man, rubbish all around…

Next, Causeway Bay. Another major shopping district in Hong Kong.

Great. These guys spent their whole night queuing up for iPad 2!

This is the reason why you need to wait in line before the Sun rise and shine!

This reseller store, DG lifestyle, has the most customers waiting in line for the iPad 2 launch. Why? DG lifestyle allows each customer to purchase 2 iPads while other reseller stores only allows a customer to purchase one. So, scalpers will surely visit this store!

Man, the female employee looks… awful.

Some customers hate the cameras.

While there’s a hundred of people waiting at the lobby, these customers are lucky to proceed!

Only 10-20 customers are allowed to walk in the store each round.

We could see lines everywhere. I’m getting sicked of it… How many stores were selling the iPad 2 in your district?

Customers from mainland China were waiting in line too, and they seemed to be coming back-and-forth to purchase the iPads. This. Is. Evil.

This cute guy waited for over 12 hours too. He prepared a portable charger for his iPhone to survive 12 hours of web-browsing. So, he bought two iPad 2s, one for himself and the other for his friend.

At noon, we see this… Sad.

Looking at today’s iPad 2 launch event in Hong Kong, we believe there’s a very huge demand over here. Before the reseller stores launch the iPad 2, the Apple online store first launched it at 1am in the country. After 48 minutes, the iPad 2 is no longer available for purchase and we managed to get 10 of them!!!

All models were sold out, and after today, reseller stores do not have them too, temporarily. So, we believe the grey market dealers will offer a high price to accept iPad 2, only for 3G models. Why 3G model? Apple will only launch the Wi-Fi model of iPad 2 in China on May 6th, there are no words on the 3G model. The customers from mainland China will only want the 3G model since it’s not available in the country! They will look for the grey market dealers in Hong Kong, especially Mr Lo. Grey market dealers will need to depend on local customers who managed to grab some units of iPad 2 from the Apple online store and reseller stores. However, we heard some rumors saying that the Apple online store is cutting iPad 2 orders… Well, we didn’t see any problems on our orders (^0^). Anyway, if you wish to get an iPad 2 for yourself in Hong Kong, perhaps you have to wait for Apple’s next restock.

Source: Unwire.hk, DCFever, Apple Daily

p.s. One more video here, in Chinese.

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TAGS: Culture:China, Apple, Apple online store, Apple Store, Hong Kong, iPad, iPad 2, photos, store, videos