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iPad 2 sells out internationally

Making its debut outside the U.S. on Friday, Apple's iPad 2 was reportedly already sold out across major international markets by Saturday afternoon.

Lance Whitney Contributing Writer
Lance Whitney is a freelance technology writer and trainer and a former IT professional. He's written for Time, CNET, PCMag, and several other publications. He's the author of two tech books--one on Windows and another on LinkedIn.
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Lance Whitney
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After launching Friday in 25 countries outside the U.S., Apple's iPad 2 was already sold out by Saturday afternoon across major markets, according to several reports.

Apple

The long lines of iPad 2 buyers in the United Kingdom apparently scooped up all the available stock from Apple's stores and other retail outlets throughout the country.

Speaking with Apple stores in Regent Street and Covent Garden areas in London, the Web site Pocket-Lint found that supplies were depleted on Saturday with no more stock expected yesterday and no indication of new iPad 2s today. The situation was generally the same at other major retail chains in London, including PC World, Curry's, Phones4U, and Carphone Warehouse.

Outside of London, Apple stores in such areas as Birmingham, Manchester, and Bristol also ran out of the tablet, while a sales rep told Pocket-Lint that there's no iPad 2 stock at all in the whole area of South West England.

Looking at Canada, Electronista found that several of the Apple stores across the country as well as outlets such as Best Buy and Future Shop had run out of the new iPad. And in Australia, the iPad 2 also sold out over the weekend at Apple stores and third-party retailers, according to the Australian.

France saw a similar situation, according to Fortune, with one shopper at Apple's Opera Store in Paris saying that more than 3,000 iPad 2s were sold in just five hours, with the store eventually running out by late Saturday afternoon. The French Web site MacBidouille said that the first eager buyers waited in line for 30 hours.

Prospective iPad 2 buyers in the United States have run into the same long lines and depleted stock since the tablet's launch in mid-March. But the tablet's online availability recently eased a bit. Online wait times for the tablet in the U.S. shrunk last week to three to four weeks from four to five weeks.