Apple sells 2m iPads to hungry fanbois Apple has sold two million iPads since its 3 April arrival in the US, the company revealed yesterday. The Jobsian fondle slab went on sale in the UK and eight other countries last Friday, with some saddos keen fans queuing overnight to be among the first customers to get their hands on the device. “Customers around the world …
Well actually, thats nearly twice as many as the 360 and more than the PS3 sold in the same period, both of which were highly anticipated and pretty much had captive markets for their product sector (forgetting the Wii, which doesn't really count).
The iPad has been launched into a saturated market, against 'superior' netbook solutions, is apparently 'pointless' and has been widely predicted as still born and of interest to only 'hardcore Apple fanbois'.
So yeah, I would say thats pretty big number.
So what exactly has desktop OS share got to do with the current ipad sales?
Apple is now worth more than MS (total share value), so kinda shows how relevant the "5% OS share" statement is if you're trying to compare "success" between Apple and MS as being some sort of vector on which to base ipad sales success. Which you can't.
Not even sure the < 5% is correct anyway; every man and his dog seems to have a bloody power/macbook these days. Did I read recently that powerbooks were the no 1 selling laptop (note: not inc netbooks)? That's gotta add up to more than 5% alone, surely.
Thankfully desktops are still "safe". In a manner of speaking.
Going off topic, agreed, but the fact is, people use Windows because they are stuck with it or dont know any better. MS are living off past glories when they managed to capture the majority of the home / corporate client base back in a former life. People that want better choose OS X or Linux, thats just a fact.
MS are all over the shop these days, how Ballmer is still there I'll never know. I mean, no one seems to even hate them anymore, which says it all really.
You know, you're right. Even helmed by the creepy, odious screaming chair-throwing staff bulling hybrid of Uncle Fester and the child catcher, it just doesn't seem worth the effort.
Sure, part of it is that Windows 7 actually sucks a lot less than any previous Windows, sure. Yeah, it still contains asstarded activation junk, which required me to phone microsoft and ask for permission to use my own computer after sapping motherboards- something I never need to worry about with another OS, but still.
I don't know, it just seems like the genie's out of the bottle, Microsoft are just failing to dominate markets like they were. The Windows 7 tablets, they're really making a splash, amirite? What about WinMo, they really crushed everyone under their dull office-friendly brogues, didn't they?
It's a death of a thousand cuts, mind you- it's not a sudden, overnight thing.. Choice, and the oft-heralded ubiquity of portable devices. Windows doesn't need to die (I can't believe that I said that), but I'm sure as hell looking forward to treating myself to a nice iPad-sized Android tablet (with card slots and removable battery)- as that's the competition to Apple here, not Microsoft.
One size never did fit all, now it's easier find some choices. I'm actually pretty pleased about that.
Ballmer cooks socks in hell, but I am not sure it's all down to him- I suspect that it would have been hard to stop this. It might be partly his sins of omission, but mostly "events, dear boy, events".
When I see people who aren't hopeless posers with a crapton of disposable income pulling their ipads out, I'll believe Apple has done something. As-is, despite people saying how popular the iphone is, I only ever see one occasionally amongst the flood of Nokias, Samsungs, Sony Ericssons and the occasional HTC.
I predict seeing even less ipads while out and about. Certainly less than the plethora of cheapy netbooks I'm noticing. As I've already said.. Apple fans and people with more money than sense will flock to buy this latest bit of avante garde furniture from Apple, just like some people do with Bang & Olufsen hi-fis.
The rest of us will pay half the price for a machine with twice the grunt and none of the restrictions.
We all know that people have queued up in the early hours to waste £400 and odd on an overblown iphone. We've all had a play with it, and thought how wonderful all the games are that you can get already on an iphone.
From this article onwards, can people please shut up about ipads. No-one f**king cares except for those sad morons who have more money than sense or who so desperately need to look cool that they'll beg mummy and daddy for one.
And if anyone says 'Well you care enough to comment', i will track you down and tear you a new one.
Best regards :)
In saying: You obviously care enough to comment, so what's the problem?
[wonders whether to tick anonymouse cowherd button and hide...]
It's shiny tech. Even my Mum has commented on it - sadly from an article she read in the Daily Mail with more inaccuracies than you could shake a stick at - but there you go. It's been given blanket coverage in the Times, presumably because they're desperate to start selling online subscriptions. In fact, Mum (who's over 70, and totally uninterested in all things techy) wants one. I'd be amazed if she's heard of Windows 7, Android or any other major tech releases in the last couple of years.
I agree it's a bit depressing to see how much free publicity the media give Apple. My old Rio Carbon was miles better than my new iPod, but the market decided, and Rio stopped making mp3 players, due to Apple hoovering up all the publicity and sales.
But the iPad will deserve the publicity if it sells 5-10 million units in a year, and spawns a new generation of cheap tablets.
I guess a lot of the Apple-haters are just sick of the bowing to St Jobs in the mainstream media, and it's turned them feral. Goodness knows what made the fanbois the way they are?
Anyway, The Register get to annoy both the fanbois and the haters with one article, so I predict they'll just keep on pumping them out, while the commentards froth rabildy away.
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Surely, selling twice as many Ipads as Macs is a damning indictment of the state of Apple's traditional computer business? They're often accused on this site and others of forgetting the 'computer' bit of 'Apple Computer Company', and this would suggest it's true.
First, their desktops went from the golden days of the G3s and G4s to being practically forgotten about by consumers. Then the normal laptops and the large 17" Pros faded away into obscurity. Now, the ever-smaller laptops, including the Mac Air have fallen by the wayside in favour of mobile phones and other gadgets that are typically bought, used as they are for two years and then thrown away. That isn't a computer, it's a personal digital assistant, or organiser. What are people writing books and essays on, editing videos or creating websites on? Certainly not Macs. *Viewing* the websites and videos, yes. Making them or writing the essays, no.
I'm not knocking the need for small, light viewing devices like the Ipad and Iphone (they're merely the inevitable next step after PDAs and smartphones), but I think it's fair to say that Apple are no longer a proper computer company, no more than Nokia or Sony.
You just keep thinking that way Coward. I know that the fact that Apple sells 1 million desktops per month doesn't interest you. Just like the fact that PCs outsell Macs 9-to-1 doesn't interest me. [My reply is, of course, 'it's the profits silly.' Apple is significantly more profitable than just about anyone]
But you go ahead a trumpet the virtues of buggy whips. Support the best damned buggy whip manufacturer in the world. As for the rest of us, we're hitching our wagons with Mr. Ford's Tin Lizzie.
1. They sold a million after 28 days, so sales have slowed down even if you include the US
2. Presumably these figures also include the global sales made on Friday/Saturday including pre-orders (hence the timing of the announcement), so sales have gone from US 1m/month to considerably less.
3. Do these include sales made to other stores (e.g. Currys/Dixons) that haven't become retail sales?
Finally: Jobs' announcement about making more iPads sounds like pure hype. Looking at PC World and Currys, there still seems to be availability in about half their stores. Bath Apple store had 10 people stood outside on the opening day. I remember trying to get a Wii (and then extra controllers). This is not the same.
Apple announces that they sold 1 million iPads (in the US) in 28 days. Apple announces that it sold 1 million iPads in 31 days. So in 2 months they sold 2 million iPads. And while Apples usually doesn't comment on such things, they probably do include the 2 days of international sales. [Which, of course, is irrelevant. Because a sale is a sale is a sale regardless of where that sale is made.]
No matter how you slice and dice it, when a company (any company) sells 1 million units of their product in a month that demonstrates a desire for that product. But is that sustainable? Maybe, maybe not. But as of June 1, Apple has sold 2 million iPads in 2 months and without any current competition from other manufacturers, Apple is poised to keep selling iPads at a 1 million unit per month rate for some time.
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that stood in line with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That queued with us upon iPad day.
Unbelievable really. That moniker may have been relevant in the early 2000s but Apple is now a mainstream consumer electronics with a strong brand. Most buyers of consumer goods such as iPod, iPad and iPhone are for the most part normal non techie citizens. The fanbois and related words is getting really tired and so 2003. They buy them because they are recommended by their friends or have used seen one and decided it worth buying. Grow up.
Apple makes a one time obscure niche technology incredibly popular over night throught eh power of Marketing, and the anti-Apple brigade are out with daggers.
The ipad is nowhere near as crap as you lot like to portray it, nor as bad value, but in the world of extremes, the 'Moses-tablet' becomes some sort of narcotic that should be satanic filth that should be stamped on "NOW!".
The truth is somewhere in-between. it's not perfect, but then no tablet is - look at the attempts from LG, Acer etc with their shoehorned Android and Windows pads recently announced (clumsy desktop OSs interfaces on 10" tablets? Crippled Market free Android variations? Suuure, that'll work!
Apple's set down the gauntlet, and it's up to the market to come up with a viable alternative. Calling people morons for buying one isn't going to stop them buying ipads as long as they actually are rather nice in use and have a lot of great software that does stuff people want.
As Palm proved, simply making a more gimmicky OS isnt enough. And Android is too much of a mess to be a serious competitor! (I can run most Apps store games on my Ipod Touch 2nd Gen whereas my Magic cant run a good few games released on Android, or even well).
Agreed!
Loads of PC manufacturers came out with 'Tablet' computers a few years ago (except Carly, who thought a leather folder was a computer). How many are around now?
Was it because the world wasn't ready for 'Tablet' computing, or did everyone look at the damn things and their inner voice told them "Don't buy this, it's only Windows!".
Did any bright young journalist (obviously not working for El Reg) say to his dear readers, "Yunno, I wonder what a REALLY innovative company could do with this idea?". Perhaps that idea occurred to many people and they saved their money and hair.
And Lo, thus did Steve J and Jonno see that it was so, and made something that not only works and that MILLIONS of people want, but have also opened up a completely new category of device that will make money for many other companies with accessories, and for the brave or mad ones, competition.
I went to the Apple Store in Regent St yesterday, for a spare MBP charger, and you couldn't get near the iPad demo units. As far as I could see the people trying the device out were sober, non-dribbling, non-shell-suited people who seemed to be 'trying the devices out', not surreptitiously wanking under the table.
Why all this jealousy and angst because one company has made a fairly good device with lots of uses, created a potentially huge new market, announced and marketed it with an adroit skill that others can only dream of and stands to make a lot of money?
Apple did the math(s)!
Apple did the engineering!
Apple did the tooling up!
Apple took the fucking huge RISK!
Not Microsoft, or Dell, or Asus, or HP, or all those other 'innovative' companies.
Apple rule at the moment, until they bring out another Turkey, and they will. Live with it and PLEASE stop WHINING!
"Which, of course, is irrelevant. Because a sale is a sale is a sale regardless of where that sale is made."
Well no, it isn't. You can't compare sales in month 2 with month 1 because month 1 was only US and month 2 was US + rest of the world. From the figures we know that month 2 was lower for the US than month 1 was, my guess is at least 1/3rd or more.
I'm not saying that there won't be an upsurge in Christmas sales or whatever, just trying to give some thoughts on the figures to say that maybe they aren't actually as rosy as people think they are.
Just out of interest I had a look to see how many games consoles get sold - the biggest annual sales ever were 8 million for the Wii in 2008. I'll be interested to see if the iPad outsellls it (in 10 months from now - can we please have no more numbers sold articles on the register until then. thanks)
>The Windows 7 tablets, they're really making a splash, amirite?<
Battery murderers.
Instead of screwing the market with three or five different version of the same OS, perhaps they should have concentrated on a low power, touch friendly, UI version of 7. Apple have raised the bar in precisely one (positive) arena, a 12 hour battery life. Android and Win7 tablets need to approach that holy grail.
Yea, I want a sofa surfer / ecomic reader (but of course, obviously not Apple as they are so utterly evil and closed off - emotionally speaking), but a two hour battery life will no longer cut it - minimum 8 hour with pen text recognition (I dislike virtual keyboards), multi tasking and etc.
>but I'm sure as hell looking forward to treating myself to a nice iPad-sized Android tablet (with card slots and removable battery)<
Same here, already lots of Chinese clones pouring out, nothing decent yet, but give it six months.
>Apple still make shiny crap for idiots with more money than sense that are happy to see the Disney version of the internet.<
Actually a good thing IMHO, the more sheeple living in the AOL version of the net where there is no piracy, no porn, no free thought, then the world governments will begin easing off killing the old net, and us old laggers can get back to it. Everyone happy.
It's nothing to do with clever marketing that makes apple successful, it's well designed products. I'm a PC user, but would happily get a mac laptop purely for the build quality and design. They're powerful, they aren't all that expensive compared to the competitors.
It's a proven fact that passion drives successful companies. Companies with a good ethos and a passion for what they do have a higher chance of succeeding (7:1) than those that don't. Apple are pushing the "well built and easy to use" aspect and it's working.
The iPhone is like any other phone, except it was the first to simplify the smartphone and make it accessible to the masses through good interface design. I'm warming to the fact that apple products are designed to be used and whilst other platforms are coming along and competing (Win7 and Android are both very, very usable) Apple did it first; they got the following.
Despite this I think the iPad is a bit of a gimmick for now, but will gladly buy the next version when it's cheaper and all the kinks are worked out.
I just wish Apple was a little more open with the software they allow, but that's never going to happen.
I mustard mitt to having been distinctly underwhelmed by the concept of the iPad, being a Tablet PC and netbook user by day and an iMac user by night.
At a photoshoot over the weekend, the tog showed me his (fnarr) and was waxing lyrical about being able to whip it out (fnarr) and fire up a portfolio instantly before handing it to the punter to let them view it in an animated book sort of way.
I may be wrong after all.
With long battery life and apps that can create a daily newspaper from your RSS feeds before you set out, checking your e-mail on the way, etc. and being able to do shite with images when you're out and about, there may well be a lot going for these things...
Apple is making mahoosive margins on the stuff they're selling just now. Competition on the iPhone is still slack, competition failed on the iPod, generally speaking. There are of course plenty of stories about iPad competitors coming out, and we're still reading articles titled "iPhone killer" that aren't quite it yet... but surely it's only a matter of time before the competition, if it can't beat Apple at iStuff then at least forces the price and hence margins down.
We're also seeing economic conditions drastically change within China with a markedly different fiscal policy in the past 18 months, now resulting in inflation and higher salaries. This will drive manufacturing costs up. We're currently (and have been for a while) in a position where electronic device prices are incredibly low. We're tossing phones every year, the new gadgets are affordable, a cheap laptop is just a few hundred dollars. Devaluation of western currencies, Asian inflation, higher wages etc will all eat into that and Apple faces the prospect of trying to be a premium manufacturer in a market where things really could be unaffortable for the masses.
The current fad that Apple are enjoying, where they seemingly can't put a foot wrong as far as sales figures go can't last forever, not at those margins. This is Apple's chance to carve out market share, and set themselves up for the future. If they make it then their current stock prices will plummet, if they do make it then the price is justified. The market does act like a flock of sheep though, good news after good news will put the price up and up again, but the first bit of bad news will see it crashing. If Apple fade away again in the future then their stock price will turn out to be another bubble, similar to what was seen at the turn of the century.
Personally I hope they fail miserably, as I can't stand wankers shoving their iPhones in my face, crowing on about how good they are, and I think Apple are about as open as North Korea.
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