**Apple’s latest product, the iPad tablet computer, has gone on sale in America.**The first generation model has wi-fi but not 3G connectivity, and unlike other tablet devices, it is not yet available outside the US.
Apple took pre-orders online but some early adopters began queuing outside stores the day before its release at 0900 EST (1400 BST) on 3 April.
The company’s co-founder Steve Wozniak joined a queue outside an Apple store in California on Friday evening.
He said he had pre-ordered the device, which is retailing in the US at $499 - $829 (£328 - £545). European prices have not yet been announced.
Overall the queues were said to be considerably smaller than the crowds that gathered ahead of the launch of the iPhone in 2007.
Greg Packer and Cheline Lundin are reported to have been the first in line in New York and Chicago respectively. Mr Packer began his wait outside the Fifth Avenue Apple store on 30 March.
The device appealed to him because it is like a “mini laptop,” he said in a YouTube clip.
News agency AFP reported 15 people waiting outside the Apple store in New York on Friday afternoon, including a mother, daughter and grandmother.
Mother Jeanney Mullen said she was planning to buy one for herself and her 11 -year-old daughter Giovanna.
Her mother had come along to buy a third for her boss, as store customers were limited to two devices each.
However not everybody shares their enthusiasm.
Journalist and sci-fi author Cory Doctorow has attacked the iPad for being too locked-down.
“Buying an iPad for your kids isn’t a means of jump-starting the realisation that the world is yours to take apart and reassemble; it’s a way of telling your offspring that even changing the batteries is something you have to leave to the professionals,” he wrote on website Boing Boing.
While Apple has pitched the iPad as a “third” device between a phone and a PC, the tablet does not synchronise easily with the two according to Ian Fogg, an expert analyst at Forrester.
“Apple has left too much in the hands of consumers to transfer and manage manually,” he wrote in a blog post.
“Tethered sync is a 20th Century product feature.” This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.