Apple iPad fans began lining up well before daybreak for Friday's release of the newest version of the popular tablet.
About two dozen people were queued up outside Perimeter Mall just before 5 a.m. Friday, many clutching older-model iPads.
At Lenox Square, where the doors to the mall were opened to iPad devotees at 6 a.m., the line had grown to between 300 and 400 by 7:30, still 30 minutes before the new tablet would go on sale.
Lynn Pelletier was at the front of the line at the Lenox Square Apple store.
“My husand told me a week ago that he wanted to buy me a new iPad for my birthday,” said Pelletier, who lives in Panama but is spending a month in Atlanta visiting her husband, who is working here.
“I’ve been wanting one for such a long time – I’m the geek in our family – so, here I am,” said Pelletier, who was about to purchase her first Apple product.
“I spent three days doing research on whether I really wanted an iPad or whether I wanted one of the Android tablets, and after three days of research and talking with some people, it was iPad all the way.”
Pelletier said that when mall security allowed people onto the property at 6 a.m., she was actually number two in line behind another customer.
“I said, ‘please, let me be first in line. Tomorrow’s my birthday, and besides that, I’m old,’” said Pelletier, who turns 61 on Saturday.
James Wright of Marietta arrived at Lenox at 5:30 a.m.
“I stood in this exact line to go get the iPad 1 and then the iPad 2, and now the new iPad,” Wright said.
He said that his previous versions of the tablet “already are owned by my kids. I’ve got a four-year-old daughter who has the iPad 1 and a three-year-old daughter who has the iPad 2.”
“Finally, I get to have my own iPad,” Wright joked. “I may not tell them about it.”
Dave Shores drove to Perimeter Mall from Tucker to upgrade his current iPad.
"I tried to order online, but I didn't have too good a luck at that," Shores told the AJC.
Shores said he was buying his second iPad because his first-generation version of the tablet is out of memory.
"I have to keep deleting this app so I can get this app, or delete that app so I can get this other new app," he said. "It's getting a little long in the tooth and it seems like it's a little bit slower."
Christopher May, director of security for Perimeter Mall, said the mall posted the plan for letting Apple customers into the building early online, and that was helping to cut down on the confusion and crowding that have marked other product releases.
The Apple customers were lined up down an outside stairway to an upper-level entrance, which May said would be opened shortly after 5 a.m., three hours ahead of the iPad's on-sale time of 8 a.m. Then, those customers would line up directly outside the door to the Apple store.
"We do it in steps so there's no running, no pushing," May said. "Things like this are very easy with Apple."
All of those customers waiting on line for the 8 a.m. release of the new iPad would probably be surprised to learn that some people had gotten their new iPad hours earlier.
Walter Reeves, host of the Saturday morning Lawn and Garden Show on AM750 and 95.5FM News/Talk WSB, said he bought his new iPad about 12:05 a.m. at a Wal-Mart in Stone Mountain.
"No problemo ... and no early morning lines," Reeves said in an e-mail that he said was "sent from my NEW iPad."
The third version of Apple's iPad comes with a faster processor and a much sharper screen. It also boasts an improved camera, similar to that of the latest iPhone.
Two years after the debut of the first iPad, the device's launch has become the second-biggest "gadget event" of the year, after the annual iPhone release.
Despite competition from cheaper tablet computers such as Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire, the iPad remains the most popular tablet computer. Apple Inc. has sold more than 55 million iPads since its debut in 2010, including some 40 million last year. Researchers estimate that the iPad has more than 60 percent of the market for tablets.
The new iPad is called just that: "the new iPad." Apple declined to give it a name like "iPad 3″ or "iPad HD." That is consistent with its naming practice for iPods, MacBooks and iMacs, but a break with the way iPhone models are named.
--The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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