Opening weekend sales of Apple’s 3G version of the iPad were good, according to published reports.
The company began selling the iPad 3G in the U.S. late Friday afternoon. The starting prices for the 3G mode were $629 (with 16 gigabytes of memory), compared to $499 starting price for the Wi-Fi only version that started selling a month ago. The reports are a good sign for Apple, which may or may not snag mainstream consumers with the iPad. Another good sign is that Apple has delayed its overseas launch of the iPad as it tries to meet demand in the U.S.
The 3G version sold an estimated 300,000 units over the weekend, according to Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. (The analyst made a more conservative estimate this time, as his estimate for the Wi-Fi only version was off the market by a few hundred thousand). Apple hasn’t provided its own sales figures, but Best Buy said it sold out of its limited inventory of models as of Sunday.
The Wi-Fi only iPad sold about 300,000 units during its opening weekend, although that device went on sale on a Saturday. Munster estimates that Apple has sold more than a million iPads altogether. While that’s a lot less than other big product launches (game consoles, for instance), it is a very respectable number for a tablet computer, which is a new category of device that consumers aren’t familiar with yet.
It will be very interesting to see if Apple can sustain sales of the iPad as rival tablet computers come on the market. Amazon has been beefing up its Kindle e-book reader, but models from players such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard (which just bought Palm in part so it can use its WebOS operating system in tablet computers and phones), aren’t hitting the market immediately.
Apple thus has a chance to grab a lot of the early adopter market for itself. If it really wants to sell a lot of units, it will probably have to consider cutting prices. The most expensive 3G model with 64 gigabytes of memory sells for $829. You can bet that clone makers will launch tablets that come in well under that price. Forrester Research estimates that Apple will sell 3 million iPads this year. Customers for the iPad 3G version will likely shell out extra money to get a data plan with AT&T, but the terms aren’t that tough, as no contract is required. AT&T is charging $14.99 a month for 250 megabytes of data and $29.99 a month for unlimited data.
Resource:
http://mobile.venturebeat.com/2010/05/02/apples-ipad-3g-model-gets-off-to-a-good-start/
