Apple starts accepting pre-orders for new iPads

iPad Air 2 silver flat

Apple’s Online Store went down for more than three hours earlier this morning as the Cupertino firm was gearing up to start accepting pre-orders for the new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3.

Lo and behold, Apple has now begun accepting pre-orders for the new tablets from customers in 29 countries and territories.

Additional global availability is due in the coming months. Interestingly enough, U.S. carrier AT&T started accepting pre-orders for the new tablets ahead of Apple. If you’re interested, head over to the Online Apple Store and make your reservation for one of the new iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 3 models.

Apple promised to start shipping these “later next week”.

Estimated delivery times for both new tablets: 2-4 business days.

To pre-order the iPad Air 2 from Apple, go here.

The iPad mini 3 pre-orders are available at this link.

The first wave of pre-orders includes the following countries: The United States, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China (Wi-Fi models only), Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macau (Wi-Fi models only), Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Later this month the tablets will hit Croatia, Greece, Puerto Rico, Russia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and other markets around the world, with additional global availability in the coming months.

In addition to Apple’s own online and retail stores, they’re also selling iPads through AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless in the United State, as well as additional carriers and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

The iPad mini 3 received a disappointingly modest upgrade yesterday in the form of Touch ID and gold colorway and is available for $399/$499/$599 for 16/64/128GB varieties. The device literally shares the same innards as the previous-generation iPad mini 2, which is now a $100 cheaper and starts at $299.

They’re also keeping the original iPad mini around starting at $249. Note that these prices are for Wi-Fi models so you’ll need to add an extra $130 if you need 4G LTE cellular connectivity.