Okay, demand for the iPad in Hong Kong may not match New York City, but for Apple, it could be an important precursor to how the device will be accepted in the all-important Chinese market. Friday was the first day the tablet device officially went on sale in Hong Kong. How’s it going? Ask a local salesperson.
“Crazy — the iPad is crazy,” Kurt Lo tells the Wall Street Journal. Lo’s usual orders from Chinese and Vietnamese customers have nearly doubled – 300 to 400 orders instead of the usual 200 to 300 per week. His Chinese customers are also expected to order between 10 to 50 iPads for the gray market.
Although this is the first day the iPad is officially available in Hong Kong, vendors like Lo have been importing the device since the tablet U.S. launch in April. Lo told the WSJ he previously used “friends” in the U.S. and UK to send him iPads.
Hong Kong is becoming an important gateway for gray market Apple products sold in China. Nearly half of the iPhones sold in China come from graymarket dealers in Hong Kong, reports Bloomberg. Already China’s gray market dealers are preparing for a flood of iPads from Hong Kong. One Beijing dealer who gets his iPads from Hong Kong buys the most-inexpensive tablets for $500 and sells them in China for $634.
