MacDailyNews Note: iPad pre-orders began on March 12th, not January 27. [Thanks, Steveeee.]
Howe continues, “Assuming that rate continues in May (and because even Apple Stores keep running out of stock that seems likely), we’ll see Apple having sold about 1.5 million units by the end of May. Average sales prices seem to be in the $645 range (16 GByte WiFi and 64GByte 3G units seem to be the top sellers).”
Howe writes, “Do the math, and we discover a quite remarkable number: Apple’s iPad will likely take the crown for the fastest consumer product growth to the $1 billion revenue mark in history, taking less than 120 days from announcement to reach that milestone.”
MacDailyNews Note: Measuring not from the announcement, but from when the product hit the market for pre-orders, Apple actually will accomplish it in just 80 days (from March 12, when iPad pre-orders began, to May 31st, around when Howe estimates they’ll hit the $1 billion milestone).
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Judge Bork” and “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
Pre-orders started 12 March, not 27th Jan
Awesome! Apple keeps setting records!
Has anybody gotten a feel for the Apple brick-and-mortar store stock the past week? Which one did you try to buy and did they have it in stock?
@ Steveeee
Correct, but he makes some excellent points in the article..especially about the pundits who said the iPad would fail.
Analyze that Moritz et all…
For your schadenfreude pleasure, see all the Dvorak, Gates, Thurrott, et al, quotes, five stories back.
So, will Steve roll out iPad 2.0 as a distraction to the Fourth of July celebrations and stand back as we all line up again to buy some more of his magic?
His response to early adopters complaining that their gadget is suddenly obsolete and incapable of doing very much beyond net surfing and emailing – “It’s not that big of a deal.”
my friend tried to buy a 3G iPad last night but had to reserve one in the store. He will get an email when it comes in. They did have all WiFi models in stock to purchase.
What?! I was so certain that Tickle Me Elmo or the Zhu Zhu Pets would have been the one. Oh well.
– Sent from my iPad 3G
Dear MDN:
Will you please fix and/or pay more attention to making sure that your tiny urls in your twitter posts actually link to the corresponding article. I’ve been noticing this for the past month, hoping against hope that somebody will notice and fix this, but alas, this morning there was another one that didn’t go to the article it was supposed to go to. I read a lot of my mac news from the twitter feeds. Every other news organization got this right, please do as well.
With many thanks,
Maconymous
Best Buy in Wichita, KS sells out their weekly allotment within two days. Next shipment due today.
While Steveeee is correct, so is MDN and so is Howe. If you want to take Howe’s date – which is correct mainly in theory – you get the most conservative date, and the one most likely to be met – and, quite likely, exceeded. Take the MDN date and there’s a chance you’ll miss it. I won’t bother going into the worlds of “pent-up demand” or “unrealistic hype” here … how about I just say the initial sales weekend (which technically includes pre-orders) is likely to be the biggest Apple will see for a while. Though, I expect sales should grow as quickly as supply will allow at least for this calendar year.
Repeating history, I would be surprised – but pleased – if they got the iPad 2.0 out the door that quickly. Still, I’m hoping for sometime in 2010. That new version will offer a few new capabilities and a few “fixes” along with a somewhat lower price. While the added features (mostly from new OS?) are likely to be nice, it’s the discount … 10%? … I’m most interested in. The only new feature I really care about is the Chat-cam, though multi-user would be nice.
DLMeyer,
There won’t be a new (hardware) version of the iPad until 2011, guaranteed. And, no, I can’t provide you with a link.
Cheers.
The end of May just happens to coincide with the iPads release in the UK and other nations. I see another spike in sales.
Somewhat lower price? Apple already priced the iPad at an incredible price point (remember when most thought it would $1000?) I wouldn’t hold my breath on a price drop. An iPad is already LESS than an unsubsidized iPhone.
Bill Gates ” I see nothing about selling gizzillions of product that people desire, very quicker, that would make me think I wish Microsoft had done that.”
So …. are iPads selling hundreds of thousands of Kindles like you predicted?
lol
Keep in mind, they are limiting how many you can buy
“Apple’s iPad will likely take the crown for the fastest consumer product growth to the $1 billion revenue mark in history” and yet they keep pushing the stock price down so someone can buy it on the cheep.
What is the real target value for AAPL this year? $350.00?$400.00? $500.00?
What ever Apple is going to do with that BILLION DOLLAR SERVER FARM is not even being calculated in yet. The building is done. People have been hired. HELLO!
@ Jersey_Trader
I think all the speculation about the billion dollar server farm is a waste of time. Sure – there will be new cloud-based products coming. But with 1 million new iPad users and a constant increase in iPhone and iPod touch users, don’t you think they need to increase their server capacity just to handle the business that we already know, like music, videos, apps, and ebooks?
@! DLMeyer
I don’t see an iPad with built-in camera, especially one pointing back at the user. Unlike with an a MacBook or iMac, the angle of the screen relative to the user can vary quite drastically, depending on how the user is holding the iPad.
On the new iPhone, there is supposedly a back-facing camera and it points straight back at the user, and that is fine for an iPhone because the user will typically be holding the iPhone screen at 90º when using it. But on an iPad, it depends; I don’t think you will want to hold it steady at an 90º for an extended period while on a video chat, and most people will not have a stand or case that can be used to prop it up. If the iPad is on your lap, an upward view from the camera would be unattractive, even if it was somehow pointed usefully at about a 45º angle (and how do you account for the user holding it in either portrait or landscape mode).
A camera facing the other direction is problematic in terms of usability too. You can point it at 90º to the screen, but do you really want to hold an iPad that way to shoot video or stills? It would look a bit silly and get tiring. Again, you can do it with an iPhone, because it is small, light, and easy to hold in one hand. With an iPad, it would be much more usable if the entire iPad acted like the pivoting LCD connected to most camcorders. Hold the iPad so the screen faces you, and be able to shoot in any direction. So you can hold it low to the ground with the screen facing you and shoot forward (not down); you can hold it above your head to shoot over a crowd.
For those reasons, I think an “iPad camera” will be an accessory (from Apple or a third-party) that connects securely to the dock connector. The camera is on a swivel and can be pointed in any direction relative to the iPad (both forward or backward). It is removed when not in use. To increase the potential audience, the maker can also make it work on iPod touch (32GB 2009 model or later).
Even better, make a camera accessory that connects to the iPad via Bluetooth. There are wireless Bluetooth webcams for regular computers, so it should be possible to do it with an iPad. Then, you can place the camera on the table apart from the iPad, and not have to worry about holding the whole iPad steady during the chat or propping it up precariously; you can do stuff on the iPad screen without shaking up the video feed. You can strap the camera the side of your head and shoot where you look, while being able to glance down at your iPad’s screen.
If you get away from the constraint that camera(s) must be built into the iPad, taking up valuable space and with limited usability, the possibilities are endless (much like the iPad itself). I expect that there will be countless clever hardware accessories for iPad before the holiday shopping season.
@ ken1w
A regular USB 3.0 port would take care of the camera and a lot of other “issues.” I sure would like one, even if just for extra memory or a hard drive or for printing or …
Naaah, can’t be. iPad is a fad.