Victoria stores brace for iPad

Retailers expect interest will create lineups

By Carla Wilson, Times Colonist; With files from CNS May 28, 2010

The iPad tablet computer is finally coming to Canada.

It'll be on sale in stores in Greater Victoria and across the country this morning, nearly two months after it was first sold in the U.S.

Judging from the pace of pre-orders, there's plenty of interest and retailers here are expecting lineups. At Apple's online store, the promised delivery wait was initially two or three business days, but that has since changed to a vague "June."

Orders started coming in to Simply Computing as soon as Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad in January, said store manager Tim Dotchin. Interest has been "vast," Dotchin said, adding the store at 2639 Quadra St., has a list of about 50 customers hoping to get their hands on an iPad.

Wireless carriers Rogers Communications Inc. and Bell Canada are offering identical data-pricing plans for the iPad. Customers of both companies can pay $15 a month for a 250-megabyte plan, or $35 a month for five gigabytes. In a major change to how they do business, they're selling the plans by the month and don't require a multi-year contract. Telus Corp. is expected to release its iPad data-pricing plans today.

At WestWorld Computers, 3214 Douglas St., manager Jeff Baker is thrilled with one corporate pre-order of 30 top-end iPads to be given to clients. He's seen "quite a bit" of interest and figures real estate agents will find them useful for showing pictures of houses for sale.

Retailers said they're restricted in what they can say about how many iPads they have available, if any.

Despite this hush-hush atmosphere, Best Buy and Future Shop stores confirmed that they'll have stock.

"There is a lot of excitement for the iPad in Canada, so we advise customers to get there early. Staff will hand out tickets an hour before stores open to customers in line," said Christopher Bennett, Best Buy Canada's director of communications.

IPads are running from $549 for the 16GB Wi-Fi version, and go to $879 for the 64GB version which can link to both Wi-Fi and the cellular network.

In Toronto, a spokesman for the Apple Store in Toronto's Eaton Centre said today will be "very controlled. Nobody will be allowed to just walk right into the store. You're going to have to line up. I know it is going to suck a little bit, but that is just our way of controlling what will be going on."

Many Canadians travelled to the United States for their iPads as early as April. But even those early adopters weren't able to officially purchase applications until Canada's iPad app store went live on May 20.

Dan Gunn, executive director of technology networking and promotion group VIATeC, has had his own iPad for about a month after a friend picked it up in Boston. The thin, lightweight iPad is handy and easier to carry around than a laptop, he said. "I use it every day. It is sort of my between-work-and-home computer."

Gunn uses his iPad in a variety of ways. He has an application for mind-mapping (a way to create links between ideas and concepts), another for an interactive periodic table and one for sports scores.

The biggest challenge is choosing from the huge number of applications available, Gunn said.

Doug Pelton, CEO of Victoria-based HeavyLifters Network Ltd. which develops applications for the iPhone, said they are working on an application that allows people to build their own iPhone and iPad apps.

HeavyLifters' iPhone applications will work on the iPad, Pelton said. They appear on an iPad screen in a smaller size, suitable for an iPhone, but can be expanded.

In addition to Canada, today also marks the official iPad launch date for Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
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