I’ve seen quite a few blogs and tweets from people saying that they were still able to pickup an iPad 2 on the weekend, where in the USA they were all but sold out on day 1. Of course the PC faithful have jumped aboard the “Apple’s not done anything new so why buy an iPad 2″ bandwagon.

I disagree totally. I think Apple learnt a lesson on the total sell out and shipping dilemmas that were / are being experienced in the USA.

Instead of delivering all the iPad 2′s that were sold through the Apple Australia website I think Apple has held those shipments in favour of keeping the stock levels higher in their retail stores.

Where do you think Apple gets the best PR from, orders online by faceless people or the big queues that formed outside their retail stores not only on launch day but also on Saturday and Sunday?

Think about it, you have hundreds of people standing in line where news crews can get easy access to loads of opinion and hype, you have people walking out of the store with their new shiny iPad 2 in hand and a big grin on their face. Those pictures are worth millions, probably billions, to Apple sales. Other retailers, tech or otherwise, would kill for that PR.