Apple hopes for big holiday sales of iPads

Stanford economics student Han Lee snaps a selfie holding his new iPad Air in Palo Alto. Stanford economics student Han Lee snaps a selfie holding his new iPad Air in Palo Alto. Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Apple hopes for big holiday sales of iPads 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

As they usually do, Apple customers queued up at stores in 42 countries around the world Friday as the company kicked off what it hopes is an "iPad Christmas" with sales of the latest model, the iPad Air.

But the lines were reportedly shorter and the atmosphere more muted than in September, when the new iPhone 5S and 5C went on sale. That may have been partly due to the fact that Apple accepted advance iPad orders for the first time, allowing customers who placed them to just walk in and pick up their order. The Air retails for $499.

Still, it was Apple's most widespread iPad launch, and Miguel Cano was pleased with his purchase when he left Apple's Union Square store in San Francisco with his first iPad, which replaces an old MacBook laptop that finally gave up the ghost.

"I figured I mostly used my laptop for browsing anyway," Cano said. "I told myself that once my computer died that I would buy an iPad, so the timing just kind of fit."

Apple representatives said the line of customers went to the corner of O'Farrell Street when the store opened at 8 a.m., which contrasted with the iPhone 5s-5C queue that stretched all the way around to Powell Street in September. And about an hour after the store opened Friday, the wait was only three or four minutes.

CEO Tim Cook said during a conference call with analysts this week that the company was hoping for "an iPad Christmas." But while Apple still leads the overall tablet computer market, the company is banking on the iPad Air and new iPad Mini models that go on sale this month to help boost sales in the face of stiffer competition this holiday season.

According to a report this week from International Data Corp., Apple's share of the worldwide tablet market slipped to 29.6 percent during the third quarter, its lowest market share yet, as tablets running on the Android operating system drove overall growth in the tablet market.

Second-place Samsung now has about 20.4 percent of the market, while Asus, with the Nexus 7 it makes for Google, was in third place with a 7.4 percent share. Lenovo and Acer were next with shares of 4.8 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively. Windows tablets were still struggling in the market, IDC said.

Shipments of 47.6 million tablets represented a 36.7 percent increase compared with the third quarter of 2012, IDC said.