As many of you are already aware, the first iPad 3s started shipping from China’s Chengdu province under tight security late last week. These shipments are leaving from the Foxconn factories and going straight to the major cities in the US where they will be delivered to Apple Stores under the cover of night – long after the malls have closed. If you have been reading my blog you have also seen that I predicted that the announcement will be made on March 7. Of course, I did not come up with that date based on any valid news leak, lol. I just got on the bandwagon of all the speculation.
Nevertheless, the iPad 3 is now here. If you look at the photo of the invitation you will notice that the event is on March 7. Since the iPads are already in the US, I predict that the first sale will start at 5PM local time on Friday March 9. People in the East Coast Apple stores will be the first ones to get them. I doubt you can pre-order them on the website in the initial days. Unless they postpone the first sales by a week. In which case you can pre-order and the first sale will be on the following Friday evening – March 16.
Did you notice that there is no home button? That might be likely, unless they took the photo in landscape mode, which is how I use my iPad 99.9% of the time. I rarely if ever use it in portrait mode. But we will know next week.
By the way, for those of you who did not get the invitation, it was sent only to a few bloggers and some media people. The event will be at 10 AM amid tighter security than usual. For the first time Steve Jobs will be missed. This is the first major product announcement after his demise. You will remember that he passed away a day after the iPhone 4S was announced.
2 comments
PBX
February 14, 2013 at 9:10 pm (UTC -8) Link to this comment
I was supposed to buy this, but again, they immediately released the 4.
JohnVarghese
February 15, 2013 at 12:36 am (UTC -8) Link to this comment
@ PBX yes. With very few changes.