Reports from numerous sources gauge that 300,000 iPads were sold this past weekend. Do the simple math 300,000 x the cheapest model – $500 = $150,000,000.00 worth of revenue for the first two days.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=32708
April 5th, 2010
iPad aftermath: Strong weekend sales; can the momentum continue?
Posted by Sam Diaz @ 2:45 am
I’ll be the first to admit that I was surprised to hear analyst estimates of iPad sales on opening weekend. Originally, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster figured the company might sell as many as 300,000 iPads – but, by Saturday afternoon, he had upped his estimates to 700,000.
Sean Portnoy: 3 quick impressions after one day of testing the iPad
That’s a mighty big jump – but it makes sense. The iPad hype machine was in full force leading up to the actual release of the device. For months, there was speculation about what Apple’s newest device category might be. And then, following the official announcement, there was a waiting period that allowed the marketing machine to build up to this past weekend’s actual release. And we’ve seen before that economic conditions don’t really come into play when it comes to Apple’s latest and greatest.
With that said… No. I did not buy an iPad this weekend. I didn’t even try and really never had any intentions to do so. Sure, in some ways, I’m a bit envious of the early adopters who are snuggling up with an iPad today – but there were two reasons why I didn’t buy one.
One, I’ve learned to not pick up version 1.0 of anything – an Apple product or not. And two, taking $500 out of my family’s budget for a big-screened iPod Touch – which I already have – just seemed a bit excessive, especially as I’ve tried to teach my own kids some lessons about scaling back during tough economic times.
Notice the last two paragraphs. Sour grapes or just another sign of the diminishing magazine marketplace? This is ZDnet and there is no budget for a new product? Amazing. They had budget for many other devices I’m sure but for one as heralded as this no budget sounds strange, but stranger things have happened.
We’ll see how this product shakes out over the next 6 months. Like I have stated in past posts this is truly the beginning of the end for the traditonal print industry.