If the early estimated iPad sales figures are to be believed, Cupertino must have a lot of jeans and sneaker-wearing execs grinning from ear to ear. In fact, it looks like the Apple tablet has already beaten the pre-order numbers that the first iPhone once garnered.
According to a source at BoyGenius Report, as many as 150,000 online pre-orders have come in for the iPad since Friday morning, when Apple first started accepting them. Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech seems to corroborate this. The media company reported findings from Daniel Tello, an amateur Apple analyst whose predictions often outpace the pros. Tello analyzed the early data and estimates that 120,000 were pre-ordered in the first day alone, and that the orders totaled 152,000 after three days. (These numbers don’t even include the tablets reserved for in-store pick-up.)
Tello told Fortune, "My best (early) guess… would be that they hit the 1 million unit milestone by the second week after it ships."
One. Million. Tablets. In the U.S. alone. Here’s some context for that: The original iPhone took 74 days to sell a million devices. And only something like 3 to 4 million tablets — across different brands and makers — sell globally each year.
If you’re an Apple hater, you might point out that sales boomed at first, then slowed over the ensuing days. So it would be easy to chalk that early excitement up to hype and fanboy fever, and predict a dismal decline. In fact, some blogs are already hopping on that bandwagon. And since these early estimates aren’t based on concrete figures yet, it is still more than possible. But if the projections do pan out, this could be another runaway hit.
Right now, there are rumors that iPhone OS 4.0 is not only destined for both the iPhone and the iPad, but that it might even boast multitasking — the number one desired feature on Apple mobility products. This has been one of the biggest criticisms of the iPad (and the iPhone) thus far, so if Apple actually hits the switch on that, there may be no telling what the (sales) future might hold.
But for now, Brainstorm Tech posted the estimated breakdown of orders received thus far by tablet type, with the Wifi-only model accounting for more than two-thirds of the pre-orders and a relatively even split for the 16, 32 and 64 GB tablets, at roughly one-third each.
Is all this much ado about nothing? We’ll know for sure when April 3rd rolls around and the first Wifi devices deliver. I’ve got my order in, and look forward to finally checking this out in person.
Via: BoyGenius Report, Engadget, Brainstorm Tech
