Apple touches record high as iPad 3 sales run hot

Apple’s new iPad proved to be another hot-seller on Friday, with hundreds queuing at stores across Asia to be the first to get their hands on the 4G-ready tablet computer as the company’s share price hit $600 for the first time. As consumers lined up around city streets to buy the iPad, one firm that took the new device apart said Qualcomm, Broadcom, and Samsung Electronics had all held onto their prized roles as key parts suppliers. David Tarasenko, a 34-year-old construction manager who was the first to pick up the iPad from a Telstra store at midnight in Sydney, said ever since Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook revealed the tablet’s third iteration, he couldn’t wait to get one. “When Tim Cook announced it, it sounded like such a magical tool. I just got hyped into it, I guess,” he said. The new iPad is a progressive development of Apple’s tablet, with a more powerful CPU and screen and better camera. It was not marketed as a revolutionary product like earlier versions, yet Apple devotees still snapped up the latest version. “The iPad is already a pretty mature product and it’s hard to revolutionize it any further,” said Dickie Chang, an analyst with research firm IDC based in Hong Kong. “It’s slightly heavier than its predecessors and I think Asian consumers will be more concerned about that,” he said. “Going ahead, with Tim Cook at the helm now, I think he may have to come up with another product to mark his stamp. That could come in the form of launching a smaller iPad with a longer battery life, for instance.” Crowds were down on previous Apple launches, but there was still excitement as stores opened. “I’ve come from Russiato buy an iPad for my three-year-old son David,” Oleg Konovalov, a newspaper salesman, told Reuters in Tokyo. “Everyone in Russia wants an iPad, but to buy it there I will have to wait several months.” “This reminds me of the time 30 years ago when I waited 8 hours in the cold to see Lenin’s Mausoleum.” The buzz helped propel Apple shares to record highs in U.S. trade on Thursday, with Apple stock touching a high of $600.01 before easing back. It peaked half an hour after the first iPad went on sale in Australia, extending the market worth of the world’s most valuable company to almost $560 billion. Only a month earlier, the stock price had crossed $500 for the first time. The stock has jumped 45 percent this year. At Thursday’s closing price of $585.56, the stock is far more expensive than the $499 starting price for a Wi-Fi iPad.