Whether or not you like the Apple iPad, and whatever your thoughts on its lack of Adobe Flash support may be, there’s no denying that Apple’s marketing hype just can’t be stopped. Case in point – following Apple’s move to open the doors to pre-orders this morning, reports are pegging initial sales at a whopping 50,000 units. It apparently took Apple just two measly hours to get purchase commitments for 50,000 iPads. That calculates to something like 25,000 orders per hour, or about 7 iPad orders every second.
The sales estimates don’t come from Apple proper, so it’s all technically still speculation at this point. But, if analysts like Valcent Financial Group’s Victor Castroll are on point with their estimations – which is based on order numbers that they’ve managed to track on a Google Spreadsheet – there are something like 51,000 confirmed orders for iPads in the first two hours of sales.
The order numbers also give us a glimpse into what kinds of iPads are being ordered. The breakdown goes something like this: 25% pre-ordered the 3G model, with another 25% ordering the 64 GB model, and another 25% ordering two of Apple’s upcoming tablet device. It seems people are gunning for the higher-end models, despite their higher price points.
But, the cold, hard truth of iPad sales may lie in Apple’s iPad production ramp. Rumors have Apple stocking as little as 300,000 units for its April 3 launch. At the current rate, Apple could very well see every single one of its tablets spoken for before the device even ships.
Time will tell how the Apple tablet performs in terms of financials, but if these estimates prove accurate, Apple’s going to have another blockbuster hit on their hands.
So, who’s getting an iPad today? Are you going for the WiFi-only or WiFi+3G model?
If you want to contribute to the iPad sales estimates, email your order number to ipadsales10@gmail.com.
[Via: Fortune]