Apple Retail Stores Begin Prepping for iPad Launch as First Third-Party Retailers Open

With Apple's official launch of the iPad in Australia, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong just hours away, it seems that some of the company's retail stores are beginning their preparations. At Apple's Fukuoka Tenjin store in Japan, which closed for the night a little over an hour ago, employees are currently hard at work removing iPad 2 units from display in order to replace them with demo models of the new iPad.

fukuoka store ipad 3 setup
Apple's retail stores will be opening at 8:00 AM local time to begin selling the new iPad, but some third-party retail partners will be opening even earlier. In fact, our friends at iFixit have traveled to Australia in order to be among the first to obtain an iPad for teardown purposes and were first in line at a Telstra retail store in Melbourne that opened just a few minutes ago at midnight. The carrier is even celebrating the event with a meter square iPad cake.

telstra ipad cake
Update: iFixit now has its iPad in hand and will begin tearing it down shortly.

Related Roundup: iPad
Buyer's Guide: iPad (Buy Now)
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Top Rated Comments

mertyz Avatar
174 months ago
We spend months following every single new internal leak.
We finally see an assembled one at the Apple's keynote event.
We tear it down to see internals again after the launch.

What's wrong with us?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
greytmom Avatar
174 months ago
Cake would have been perfect if they hadn't mixed up the locations of Newsstand and Settings ... shame

All you have to do is press and hold until the icons wiggle, and you can rearrange the apps.

Might be a little squishy with the icing and all.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AppleScruff1 Avatar
174 months ago
The cake probably tastes like garbage.

I've had cakes with designs like that before, and calling them "edible" is the same as calling paper "edible". The design literally peels right off... it's just a layer of fondant. And for those who have never eaten fondant before, let me tell you, fondant sucks. Though it's made of only sugar and water, it tastes nothing like sugar or water (or soda, which is also just sugar and water.)

It's an iPad cake. It will be magically delicious. :D
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
powerslave12r Avatar
174 months ago


Update: iFixit now has its iPad in hand (https://twitter.com/#!/iFixit/status/180283743326576640) and will begin tearing it down shortly.


Here we go. :D
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FloatingBones Avatar
174 months ago
Will all of the accessory iPads in Apple Stores be replaced tonight?

Will Apple immediately replace all of those iPads in the plastic cases used to display product information for all machines in the Apple Stores?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
greytmom Avatar
174 months ago
The tear downs freak me out and fascinate me, all at the same time.

And what a fun cake - I want some!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)