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At 9am today, the iPad officially went on sale at Apple stores and Best Buys around the country. Maybe it will revolutionize computing and save the publishing industry; maybe it'll turn out to be an overpriced, oversized iPod Touch. Either way, the first people to know for sure are the folks currently waiting in line outside the stores. Let's check in with them, shall we?
The sun is shining, the iPads are singing, and a couple hundred of Apple's most loyal fans are gearing up to take home the newest gadget from the brand's sparkling Meatpacking District location. As of 8:30 this morning the two lines—one for those preregistered and another for the less organized who just showed up—curled through a maze of NYPD barricades stretching the block from the 14th Street entrance to the corner of 15th. The lines were deep but the early-adopters (or nerds, you say tomato) were happy—and at exactly 9:00 the blue-shirted shop staff opened the doors and applauded the throng, who in turn applauded each other and this newest bit of Apple geekery.
Customers are being let in in groups of about 75 and the line remains in tact as the chosen peacefully ascend the shops spiraling staircase which is flanked by pairs of grinning Apple shop clerks. Outside, a good dozen various media whatevers snapped photos and another hefty group of onlookers wielding camera phones watched from the Ninth Avenue median as more cops than seemed necessary kept the peace. No freebies yet—save for some bottles of water. But something tells us the mood will stay as sunny as the weather either way. Unless of course they run out of iPads.
· All iPad coverage [Racked NY]