Some of Europe’s biggest telecoms companies have told Apple to stop saying that its new iPad can be used on 4G, because that is the case only in the United States.
Apple’s new iPad tablet is launched today in America, Britain and eight other countries. The launch has helped to propel Apple’s share price through the $600 level for the first time this week — queues formed outside its stores days before the device went on sale.
However, the 4G faster network technology has yet to be launched in Britain and the European version will run on a frequency different from that used in North America, which means that the new iPad will not work as a 4G device even when the networks are launched here.
Apple has amended its website several times in the past few days to emphasise that the new device will work on only some American and Canadian 4G networks, but it still describes the device on its British website as “Wi-Fi + 4G”.
The 4G logo also appears on the new iPad’s box and may be part of the marketing material supplied to mobile phone company shops.
Advertisement
One network has told its call-centre staff to inform customers that the new iPad is not a 4G device, while a rival has done the same with its shop staff.
“This is going to confuse the hell out of people,” a source said.
Among those eager to try out the new device was Dipak Varsani, 21, of Neasden, northwest London, who was determined not to make the same mistake as last year, when he queued outside Apple’s store in Covent Garden two days early for the new iPad2 — but found no one else there and so went home.
“When we came back, there was already a huge crowd of people,” he said today. “We should have just waited. I wasn’t going to do that again.”
To avoid repeating his error, he arrived at 1am on Thursday to start the queue for “the new iPad”, the name Apple insists on giving the latest version. By the time doors opened at 8am several hundred people had joined behind him, snaking their way through the streets.
Advertisement
Many were in hoodies and blankets, prepared to spend a cold night in London. The queues make some sense. When Apple unveiled the new device last week customers could “pre-order” through its website, with delivery three days after it went on sale to the public.
But when the online orders became available last week the product was was sold out within days, meaning that those wanting to get hold of the device quickly will have had to join the queues.
“I just love the way the software works with the hardware,” said Dipak, who wanted to buy a black 64 GB version of the new iPad. “It’s like a work of art.”
The queue in Covent Garden was dominated by young men of Asian heritage. Karthik Shankar, 23, from India, said he was buying the iPad on a visit to Britain because it was a status symbol back home, where it may not go on sale for months. “It’s like holding a Ferrari,” he said.
James Cordwell, an analyst at Atlantic Equities, who came to see the crowds, said he believed the smaller queues outside the Apple store in Regent Street had “a more Eastern European flavour”. Observers claimed that some in that queue had been paid £10 an hour to wait to buy the device, so that they could be taken and sold in Moscow.
Advertisement
The iPad went on sale in ten countries today, and will be available in 25 more, mainly in Europe, next week. The company has refused to reveal sales figures so far, though analysts expect about nine million to be sold in the next three months.
The main selling point is the new screen, which features more than three million pixels. It is named the “retina display” because, Apple claims, when held at arm’s length this is the maximum number of pixels the human retina can perceive.
The controversial 4G issue relates to the frequencies used to carry mobile phone signals. 4G networks in America use the 700Mhz and 2100Mhz frequencies, but in Europe they will run on the 800Mhz and 1800Mhz ranges. Chips in the new iPad are tuned to work only on the American frequencies, so the new version will never work on European 4G networks.
Britain is falling behind on 4G services because of delays in selling the 800Mhz spectrum. Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, has provisionally given the green light for Everything Everywhere, the owner of Orange and T-Mobile, to reuse its existing 2G frequencies for 4G, and the company has committed to launching the service by the end of the year.
That would give Britain’s largest network a head start of more than a year on its rivals, which have to wait for new spectrum to be sold before launching 4G networks.
Advertisement
Phil Cave, 51, an IT specialist from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, joined the end of the Covent Garden queue half an hour before the stores opened today. He had the first iPad version and wanted to upgrade.
“I’m a bit worried I won’t get in,” he said, “because I’m here on business and have a meeting in a few hours. But my wife has an iPad2, so I reckon I need the latest version.”
As the doors opened, Apple employees in blue T-shirts applauded and whooped, forming an honour guard as Dipak sheepishly made his way in. As he left, a scrum of photographers forced him to jump up and down holding his new purchases, heckling him for not being enthusiastic enough.
Afterwards he seemed overawed by all the attention. “Getting all those photos taken at the same time, it makes your eyes water,” he said. “I’ve seen it happen to other people, but nothing can prepare you for it.”