AT&T has released the following statement:
iPad activations on AT&T increased more than 200% over the past three days compared to last year’s launch weekend, driven by consumer excitement around the new iPad Air and the popularity of AT&T Mobile Share, which lets customers add an iPad to their existing data plan for just $10 a month.
We also saw strong demand for AT&T Next, which offers customers an iPad for $0 down on the nation’s fastest and most reliable 4G LTE network. — Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T Mobility
Source: AT&T Inc.
MacDailyNews Note: Last year, both the iPad mini with Wi-Fi + Cellular and fourth generation iPad with Wi-Fi + Cellular models started shipping two weeks after the Wi-Fi-only models hit on launch weekend, so the reception last year may well have been muted vs. this year when cellular iPad Air models debuted alongside the Wi-Fi-only models on launch weekend. On the other hand, the new iPad mini with Retina display is not yet available, so these are purely activations of iPad Air Wi-Fi + Cellular models about which AT&T is reporting.
Bottom line: “Triple” makes for a nice headline, but it’s impossible to compare iPad launch weekend 2012 vs. 2013 in any meaningful way.