Dedicated Few Line Up as Apple iPad Air Goes on Sale

Apple's newest tablet, the iPad Air, is now on sale.

The updated gadget went on sale at 8 a.m. local time this morning in 42 countries, including the U.S., U.K., and Canada. See the full list below.

Apple product launches are usually a spectacle at the company's retail stores, though new iPhones tend to attract bigger crowds than iPads. Still, videos of store launches, including those in Sydney, Tokyo, Japan, Rome, and Amsterdam, have cropped up on YouTube, as CNN noted.

In Japan, hundreds of people gathered at Apple's flagship store in the Ginza district to be one of the first to get their hands on Apple's latest tablet, according to the AFP. But the launch had "little of the razzmatazz of previous iPads or iPhones," the report noted, perhaps due to widespread criticism that the company's iPads are too boring and safe.

The launch kicked off in Australia, where several hundred people lined up outside Apple's flagship Sydney shop. Check out the video below.

In London, the new iPad "was met with unimpressive crowds which had entirely dissipated by the early morning," according to The Register.

A number of people probably placed pre-orders for the iPad Air, an option that was not available for the iPhone 5s last month, prompting big lines in New York City and elsewhere.

Others might be waiting for the updated iPad mini with Retina display. It will arrive in late November in white and silver or space gray and black. The Wi-Fi version will start at $399 (16GB) and $529 for Wi-Fi plus cellular.

The 9.7-inch iPad Air is 20 percent thinner than the previous iPad, from 9.4mm to 7.5mm. The bezel is also 43 percent thinner than the previous version. The iPad Air is available in silver and white or space gray and black, starting at $499 for a 16GB Wi-Fi version and $629 for the cellular model.

Here's a full list of countries where the iPad Air is now available: the U.S., Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China (Wi-Fi models only), Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao (Wi-Fi models only), Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K.

For more, see our Hands On With the Apple iPad Air and the slideshow above. Also check out PCMag's full coverage of Apple's new iPads.

Be sure to watch PCMag Live in the video below, which features the brand-new iPad Air.