Australians have become some of the first recipients of the much-hyped iPad outside the US, as Apple begins a global rollout tipped to change the face of computing.
The iPad went on sale this morning, with Australia's time zone putting its consumers at the front of the queue ahead of their counterparts in Japan and Europe.
The tablet computer had been due to hit the global market in late April, but unprecedented US demand forced Apple to push the date back a month.
Apple said earlier this month it sold one million iPads in the first 28 days in the US, less than half the time it took for the company to sell the same number of iPhones.
Diehard Australian fans braved wind and rain to be the first to get their hands on the multimedia gadget, with self-confessed Apple fanatic Rahul Koduri staging a 30-hour vigil to secure his spot at the head of the queue.
Prepared with blankets, jumpers, chairs and a sleeping bag, Mr Koduri took the day off work and established himself outside Sydney's flagship Apple store at 2:00am on Thursday, about 30 hours before the doors opened.
"I want to be the first to get it," said Mr Koduri, a 22-year-old aerospace engineering student, as he waited in line.
"The experience of going to an Apple store and buying it - there's just no other company like that. It's like a cathedral when you're inside there."
Hardcore fans gathered outside Apple stores worldwide for Friday's global release, with the iPad to go on sale for the first time in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland.
A wi-fi version of the iPad, which allows users to watch video, listen to music, play games, surf the web or read electronic books, went on sale in the US for $US499.
A model featuring both wi-fi and 3G cellular connectivity appeared on US store shelves on April 30 for up to $US829.
More than 5,000 applications have been developed for the iPad, according to an Apple spokesman, in addition to the 200,000 programs already available for the iPhone or the iPod Touch, most of which run on the iPad.
California-based Apple plans to bring the iPad to Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore in July.
