Passionate Apple collector Rahul Koduri is first in the iPad queue at Apple's George Street store in Sydney yesterday.
IS the iPad launch manufactured hype or an organically grown obsession driven by Apple fans?
The march of hundreds of hopeful iPad buyers through the doors of seven Apple stores around Australia today marks the culmination of a marketing campaign that could have come only from the world of Apple founder Steve Jobs, accentuated by the curious obsession Apple fans have with the brand.
While Apple has done everything in its power to make the hype surrounding the launch seem spontaneous and consumer-driven, marketing experts say it has been a carefully calculated campaign managed in minute detail by Apple executives.
The devices will be widely available in stores across Australia, but Apple has worked to distil the hype of the launch by releasing the names of only seven Apple stores that will have the iPad, including a new store opening in Sydney's Bondi today; other outlets will not be revealed until after Apple's own stores have opened.
Experts say the move is designed to focus the hype and media attention around Apple's branded stores.
Last night, cold, wet weather in Sydney appeared to be counteracting the hype at the city's George Street store, with only a dozen or so die-hards huddled outside waiting for today's release of the device.
One fan who was not to be deterred, however, was engineering student Rahul Koduri, 22, who was first in line after arriving at 2am yesterday.
Mr Koduri said he already owned an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, iPod Classic, iMac, MacBook and MacBook Air, and could not wait to have the "revolutionary" iPad among his Apple arsenal, which he will carry everywhere and use for email and internet.
"It's an amazing product, revolutionary in many ways, because five years from now that's the only kind of device you will have in your hand," Mr Koduri said.
"It might not be an Apple brand but it will be a tablet device; this is just the first stepping stone."
Mr Koduri planned to buy two iPads when the shop opened at 9am today and already had a list of newspaper apps he planned to buy, which meant he no longer had to buy the "dead tree edition".
"The first app that I will probably buy will be a newspaper app, because I love news -- The Australian, Bloomberg, New York Times, things like that."
The Australian launches its iPad app today, while news group Fairfax also said it was launching apps for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, although it declined to reveal pricing or when the app would be available.
Sources close to Apple told The Australian that while Apple fans' passion for the brand was real, there was nothing left to chance with such launches.
"It's all very carefully managed," the source said.
"Steve Jobs turns the product into a celebrity. It gets a glamour launch and is surrounded by lots of gossip, and people eat that gossip up which helps drive the hype."
Locally, Apple's ad agency WhybinTBWA/Tequila in Sydney has a small team locked away with not even senior executives of the agency privy to the campaign.
Matt Eastwood, creative director of DDB, which is launching Australia's $180 million tourism campaign, said Apple was a master of taking people's passion for the brand and amplifying it out to the wider community.
