iPad debuts in Apple retail stores

An hour before the store is set to open, eager customers continue to wait in line for the iPad at San Francisco’s Apple retail store located on Stockton Street.

“USA Today” promotes its iPad app by passing out screen cleaner wipes to passerbys and customers in line.

Two lines form for the iPad’s debut—one for people who have already reserved the product online (right), and one for people who did not (left).

Customers are greeted by the enthusiastic applause of Apple’s retail staff.

Lyle Kahney dons a homemade cardboard iPad suit.

A box of extra iPad cases awaiting shelving. There was a high demand for the $39 accessory.

The Genius Bar filled with customers beginning their iPad purchases.

Brian Wickham (right), who started waiting in line at 5:30 AM, tries out the iPad on the display floor.

Linda Moore examines the accessories wall for extra iPad products.

New iPad owners stay for an in-store tutorial about iPad basics and its functions.

A customer unpacks his iPad while an Apple employee helps him with the initial registration.

Alaa Ismail plays with an Apple display iPad after purchasing his own. Bottom right, Ismail shows-off a 30-year old picture of him using an Apple ][.

Two police officers stand outside the store to control the line and look for potential disruptions.

By 9:00 am, the line at Walden Galleria Mall in Buffalo, NY included several hundred people.

Photo by: Marco Tabini

Stacks of iPads eagerly await a new owner at Buffalo’s Walden Galleria store.

Photo by: Marco Tabini

Two lines form early in a mall in Tigard, OR—one for those with reservations and a longer line for those without.

Picture by: Rob Griffiths

Customers get a preview of the iPad from an Apple worker while waiting in line in Holyoke, MA.

Photo by: Serenity Caldwell

A customer in Holyoke, MA tries out an iPad.

Photo by: Serenity Caldwell

Apple fans outside Fifth Avenue in NY were out in full force to wait for their chance to purchase the latest Apple device on its release date.

Photo by: David Dahlquist

Richard Gutjahr, a 37-year-old public television journalist from Munich Germany, was the first customer to enter the NY store, and the first to leave with a new iPad.

Photo by: David Dahlquist