IPad 2 Hits Jakarta Shelves, but Stocks Limited, Retailer Says

Gadget lovers, limber up your fingers, get in line and hope for the best. Apple’s iPad 2 tablet launched in Jakarta on Friday, but one retailer is saying supplies will be depleted by Sunday.

Ari Soetjitro, a consultant manager for local Apple reseller iBox, said on Friday that the retailer expected to sell all of its iPad 2s in five stores by Sunday.

IBox has stores in five Jakarta malls, including Senayan City, Kelapa Gading 3, Plaza Indonesia and Central Park.

Ari said that in order to ensure fairness, iBox was not allowing customers to place reserve orders for the highly sought-after tablet. Instead, the store was implementing a first-come, first-serve lineup policy.

“We have made a purchasing system where every customer must line up to purchase their iPad 2 and the store will be opened by 9:30 a.m. and it will be closed by 10:00 p.m. Basically, they cannot make a booking to get their iPad.”

Anticipation has been running high in the capital for the new tablet, which was released in many other countries back in March.

Ari said the reason that iPad 2 was so late in coming to Indonesia because of a licensing delay from the Directorate General of Post and Telecommunication.