Apple Announces Eye Popping iPad Sales Numbers
March 20, 2012 11 Comments
Apple on Monday afternoon announced that sales of its new iPad soared in the weekend following the tablet’s March 16 launch.
According to a press release, the company said it sold three million units, making this the most successful new iPad debut.
“The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold―the strongest iPad launch yet,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, per the release.
Last year, the company did not release first-weekend figures for the iPad 2, apparently because of supply constraints. One analyst estimated at the time that customers snapped up one million devices in the first days of the tablet’s availability before stores sold out of their stock. In 2010, Apple sold 300,000 original iPads during that device’s first weekend.
Last fall, Apple sold four million iPhone 4S smartphones in the device’s opening weekend.
Apple hosted a press conference on Monday morning to discuss plans for the company’s cash hoard of nearly $100 billion dollars. During the conference call that followed, CEO Tim Cook did not state specific iPad sales figures but hinted at a “record weekend,” Apple Insider reports. The company also announced that it will spend a total of $45 billion over three years on a dividend and a share repurchase plan.
Some recent iPad buyers may be less than thrilled with their new purchase, however. Complaints about the device have already appeared on Apple support forums. Many users seem to be concerned about a possible heat distribution problem, noting that one corner of the tablet can get very hot; some have even seen an error screen informing them that the device is too hot.
Some reviewers also noted concerns about the device’s temperature.
The Verge’s Dieter Bohn found a small but “vexing” problem while attempting to use FaceTime over the new iPad’s 4G network. “[A]ttempting to initiate a FaceTime call over LTE fails out with a message exhorting you to connect to a Wi-Fi network,” he wrote.
While it has always been true that FaceTime only worked on Wi-Fi and not over cellular networks, Bohn points out that this is especially annoying when you can turn your Verizon iPad into an LTE hotspot, which would allow you to FaceTime on other devices but not on the iPad acting as the hotspot.
TechCrunch’s MG Siegler echoes Bohn’s complaint about FaceTime being available only via Wi-Fi, “despite the fact that the LTE networks are so much faster (faster than my WiFi even), Apple says that FaceTime will still be WiFi-only for now.”
I know it’s not a popular sentiment with android users, but “good for Apple.” We need more successful American companies. Android users are 100% foreign made. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is invented or even copied by android in the United States.
With figures showing such vast profits one can only say these items are grossly over priced.
t’s all well and food distributing the vast amount of cash between the shareholders, but what about dropping the price for the buyers, or is that too much to ask, too much like showing the rip off being made?
Very much the same wit the operating systems like Windows, no wonder Apple and Microsoft are close to being the richest firms on earth.
I am not impressed with Jobs(successors) and Gates spreading the immense profits around and making out they are being munificent , when in fact all they are doing is stealing money and dishing it out, to ease their con sciences maybe?
Robin Hoods/, with the emphasis on hoods!’
Inside every iPad is a little scribbled note from a Chinese Slave Laborer which reads:
“FML Kill me…. “
The results should later prove interesting as the iPad 3 is reportedly costing 50% of the sales price AND both Apple and its after market partners went out to offer nice trade ins for older iPads. Both iPad 3 unit costs and the trade in program have eaten into the profitability this time around. I suspect as the tablet market reaches saturation over the next 2 years…these unit profitability will continue to suffer.
The post-PC era has arrived. I for one will wait until the front camera has a better resolution than ridiculous 640×480. What is this? The 90s?
I don’t want to hear anymore crap about this so-called difficult economy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-D7bVxhQB0
So what did these people do with their old ipad’s? I picture them piled next to their beds along with their wookie dolls. Heck, maybe on their beds.
Apple*
lol yay i’m one of the 3million. :love:
i never understood the difference between an iPad and iPhone. Don’t they do the same thing except one is bigger and the other can make and receive phone calls?