亚洲果迷排队购迷你iPad,苹果大不如前?

APPLE fans lined up in several Asian cities to get their hands on the iPad mini yesterday, but the device, priced above rival gadgets from Google and Amazon.com, attracted smaller crowds than at the company's previous global rollouts.

在亚洲城市的苹果迷们昨天排着队抢购迷你iPad，但该设备，价格高于来自谷歌和亚马逊网上的竞争对手的产品，吸引的人群没有该公司先前的全球发布会上的人多。

Apple Inc's global gadget rollouts are typically high-energy affairs drawing droves of buyers who stand in line for hours. But a proliferation of comparable rival devices may have sapped some interest.

苹果公司的全球电子产品发布通常是吸引大批买家排队数小时才能获得的费力事。但竞争对手的一种类似产品可能已经削弱了某些兴趣。

About 50 people waited for the Apple store in Sydney to open, where in the past the line had stretched for several blocks when the firm debuted new iPhones.

在悉尼约50人等待苹果商店开门，在过去当公司推出新iphone时队伍已经绕了几条街。

At the head of yesterday's line was Patrick Li, who had been waiting since 4:30am. Li was keen to buy the new 7.9-inch model.

昨天排在队伍最前的是帕特里克•李，他从早晨4点半就开始等。李渴望购买到新的7.9英寸的模型。

"It's light, easy to handle, and I'll use it to read books. It's better than the original iPad," Li said.

“它很轻，容易拿，我将用它来读书。它比原来的iPad更好，”李说。

There were queues of 100 or more outside Apple stores in Tokyo and Seoul when the device went on sale, but when the company's flagship Hong Kong store opened staff appeared to outnumber those waiting in line.

当该产品上市销售时东京和首尔的苹果商店有100或更多的人在排队，但当公司的旗舰店香港商店开门时员工似乎比那些排队的人还多。

The iPad mini marks Apple's first foray into the smaller-tablet segment, and the latest salvo in a global mobile-device war that has engulfed combatants from Internet search leader Google Inc to Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp.

迷你iPad标志着苹果首次进入了平板电脑市场，这在全球移动设备战争市场上的最新出击威胁到了来自互联网搜索领头羊谷歌、亚马逊公司和微软的竞争者。

Microsoft's 10-inch Surface tablet, powered by the just-launched Windows 8 software, went on sale in October, while Google and Amazon now dominate sales of smaller, 7-inch multimedia tablets.

微软的10英寸平板电脑由刚刚发布的Windows 8软件作支持，10月上市，而谷歌和亚马逊现在主导着7英寸平板多媒体电脑的市场。

Unveiled last week, the iPad mini has won mostly positive reviews, with criticism centering on a screen considered inferior to rivals' and a lofty price tag. The new tablet essentially replicates most of the features of its full-sized sibling, but in a smaller package.

上周公布，迷你iPad已经赢得很多积极的评价，而批评定声集中在屏幕被认为不如竞争对手的以及一个高昂的价格标签。新平板电脑基本上复制的大部分全寸电脑的特性，除了以一个更小的样子。

At US$329 for a Wi-Fi only model, the iPad mini is a little costlier than predicted but some analysts see that as Apple's attempt to retain premium positioning.

329美元对于一个只有wi-fi模型，迷你iPad比预计的有点贵，但一些分析人士认为苹果正试图保留着溢价定位。

Some investors fear the gadget will lure buyers away from Apple's US$499 flagship 9.7-inch iPad, while proving ineffective in fighting the threat of Amazon's US$199 Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus 7.

一些投资者担心这个小产品将吸引买家从苹果499美元的旗舰产品即9.7英寸的iPad中撤离，在威胁亚马逊199美元的Kindle Fire和谷歌的Nexus 7时却被证明无效。