Munich. Hundreds of people queued infront of Munichs Apple store - some even waited up to 21 hours, as the iPad went on sale in Germany today.

Camp chairs and coffee in thermos jugs, that's how Apple fans waited in front of Apple's biggest store in Germany for the new iPad. But one man exceeded them all: Helge Gleiss, probably Apple's biggest fan from Munich. The 26 year old camped a full day before the sales started in front of the store. In his backpack were two sandwiches and a folding chair. He wanted to be the first to buy an iPad in a german store.

Other Apple stores in Germany experienced the rush as well. Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main's Apple fans queued up before the opening of the shop at 8 AM, resulting in waiting lines stretching over hundreds of metres. Most of them waited since midnight for the opening of the store.

Apple has high expectations for their newest invention: an Apple spokesperson talked about immense customer interest. The iPad has been on sale in the US since April. Apple sold one million iPads within the first four weeks, 300,000 alone on the first sales day.

The demand was so huge, that Apple had to postpone the sales start outside of the US due to delivery problems. Apart from Germany, the iPad will also be released in Australia, France, Great Britian, Japan, Italy, Canada, Switzerland and Spain. The iPad offers internet, video, games, music and e-books in the shape of a tablet computer. Instead of a keyboard and mouse it has a touchscreen.