Technology retailers are preparing for floods of orders for the newest wave of Apple and Microsoft products, some of which can be ordered beginning Friday, Oct. 26.
On Oct. 23, Garret Cleversley watched a one-hour Apple Inc. live streaming online video, where the company’s new products were introduced.
Cleversley runs Mac Solutions Plus, an Apple products and training store in Eastern Hills Mall with his wife Shawna. Tuesday’s video showed off the ipad Mini, a smaller version of the iPad that features a 7.9-inch diagonal screen. The regular iPad screen is 9.7 inches. Multiple reports had the iPad Mini retailing for around $249 to $349.
Cleversley said he can begin taking pre-orders for it later this week, and units will start shipping on Nov. 2. News of new Apple products spreads fast, Cleversley said, and he described the phone calls from curious customers as “coming in a steady stream” since the announcement.
In addition, Apple released other products, including a fourth generation iPad, which features a new connector, and runs with an A6 chip, making its processing speed twice as fast as the previous model.
“In the hour, they released updated iMacs, Mac minis and a 13-inch Macbook Pro with retina display,” Cleversley said. “It was a crazy hour.”
While the Mac Minis ($599 and up) are shipping now, the New 21-inch iMacs (starting at $1,299) will be available in November. The 27-inch iMacs (starting at $1,799) will be available in December. When asked if he’s anticipating staffing the store with extra staff on Friday he said no, “But customers can pre-order, call, email us or go online.”
Like Cleversley, David Stinner is excited about new products that can be ordered beginning Oct. 26. But he’s talking about new Microsoft products.
“Other than xBox, which they’ve been successful with, Microsoft is getting into the hardware business,” said Stinner, whose company US itek Inc. makes desktop computers, and those for industrial clients.
“They’re releasing a product called Microsoft Surface, a tablet that runs Windows 8, and will be followed 3 months later with a product called Surface Professional that will run full-blown Windows apps.”
The Surface ($499 and up) is more like the iPad. Surface Professional will be like a laptop without a keyboard and will let users snap a thin magnetic keyboard to it. And with Microsoft Windows Phone 8 being released on Oct. 29, they will be able to access Microsoft Office files from the desktop, the Surface and phone.
“It’ll be in the cloud and all 3 devices,” he said.