iPad Mini Release Date Excitement Falls for Apple's Newest Device

Apple has released its iPad mini, but while they expected the hype to be about the newly release device, much attention has been focusing on the unusually short lines at Apple stores across the world.

According to a Reuters report, "the launch of Apple Inc's iPad mini attracted smaller crowds from Sydney to New York on Friday than have been typical for previous Apple product debuts, events marked by people lining up for hours or even days."

The report said that in New York, "a few hundred people were in line at Apple's Fifth Avenue flagship store at about 8 a.m." The company delayed its opening in New York City until 10 a.m. because of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Last night, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel said that anyone standing in line for an iPad mini in New York or New Jersey should be "punched in the throat."

In Sydney, "about 50 people waited for the Apple store to open, where in the past the line had stretched for several blocks when the company debuted new iPhones."

In California, one report said that the release was "noticeably downsized" and that only 35 people were in line 30 minutes before Apple's doors were set to open.

In Singapore, CNET reports that "an hour after doors were opened at an EpiCentre retail outlet, there were at most 30 people in the queue and that the retailer announced that its entire iPad mini stock was sold out within 2.5 hours."

Piper Jaffray Analyst Gene Munster estimated that Apple will sell between 1 and 1.5 million iPad minis this weekend, compared with the third-gen iPad's 3-million opening weekend earlier this year.

The iPad Mini was unveiled on Oct. 23 and has been getting fairly good reviews.

"The iPad Mini is a far classier, more attractive, thinner machine," David Pogue, New York Times said. "It has two cameras instead of one. Its fit and finish are far more refined. And above all, it offers that colossal app catalog, which Android tablet owners can only dream about. Over all, the Mini gives you all the iPad goodness in a more manageable size, and it's awesome. You could argue that the iPad Mini is what the iPad always wanted to be."