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Hard work ahead for iPad

By Stuart Turton

Posted on 6 Apr 2010 at 08:49

Apple sold 300,000 iPads on the first day of launch, but analysts have warned the hard sell is still ahead.

According to the company, those sales "included deliveries of pre-ordered iPads to customers, deliveries to channel partners and sales at Apple Retail Stores."

While the number is certainly impressive, it actually caused analyst firm Piper Jaffray to revise its 2010 sales prediction downwards from 5.6 million to 4.3 million. The latest figures from Forrester peg sales at three million in 2010.

Now read this

Analysts made their predictions on iPad sales

"I don't think investors should expect this to be an overnight sensation," said Oppenheimer & Co analyst Yair Reiner.

"Apple sold to the first 300,000 buyers, they were the easy ones. The next 10 million will be a lot tougher. For a lot of those incremental buyers, the use case has yet to be made."

The figures are borne out by a Piper Jaffray study of 448 iPad buyers which found that 74% were already Mac users, and 66% iPhone owners, suggesting those first-day figures were bolstered by Apple die hards and early adopters.

The company will soon be facing competition from Dell and HP, which are readying their own tablet devices. However, industry watchers have argued that Apple's apps dominance should help it see off challengers.

"From a bigger strategic picture, the iPad is a content gatherer for Apple, that's what separates it from the others," said Broadpoint Amtech analyst Brian Marshall. "This has been a successful strategy for Apple in the past with iTunes."

Apple has claimed that iPad users downloaded over one million apps from Apple’s App Store and over 250,000 ebooks from its iBookstore during the first day.

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User comments

Not from what i've read

"Apple sold 300,000 iPads on the first day of launch"

From other sources it seems these numbers include "sales" to distributors such as Best Buy group too. That would indicate the actual sales to end users is much lower.

By JStairmand on 6 Apr 2010

Well, which is it?

"Hard work ahead for iPad"

and

"Analysts: Apple iPad is set for success"

By TomC89 on 6 Apr 2010

If you're still not sure...

...read this article from Engadget which describes how the iPad apps are extortionately priced at the moment.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/05/editorial-ipad-
prices-are-out-of-control-and-will-kill-us-all/

By mviracca on 6 Apr 2010

@TomC89

Both.

APPLE analysts predict success (wow! surprise!)

"Hard work ahead for iPad" selling to anyone, now Mr Magoo has his iPod touch XL...

By cheysuli on 6 Apr 2010

What about the orders?

According to the company, those sales "included deliveries of pre-ordered iPads to customers, deliveries to channel partners and sales at Apple Retail Stores."

By BornOnTheCusp on 6 Apr 2010

I think the iPad will be a huge success However!

I’m not an apple diehard even though I own several of their devices, which unfortunately have always been somewhat disappointing. My iPhone leaves me feeling like I’m nothing more than an Apple puppet. My iMac is gathering dust because like all Apple products, there’s always a compromise; something you either have to work around or do without and the iPad is no different. But Apple has really hit on a great marketing strategy, one which has worked for other companies time and time again. That is, creating fashion accessories. The diehards and fashion conscious are willing to overlook the shortcomings, however, for me, they are just devices, tools to get the job done.

I travel a great deal and like the idea, however, I’m holding off until I see what the competition can come up with, already, HP’s slate looks a better prospect as it has both USB and SD connectivity, something I would consider a must for any device such as this. Though I’m sure the diehards will have an argument as to why you don’t need it.

By Autodine on 8 Apr 2010

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