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Imagine the numbers if it would have been reasonably priced! :D

$499 isn't bad for an Apple product that does much of what their notebooks can do. I was honestly hoping for a Macbook sans keyboard for $999. /Shrug.
 
Okay, I know in advance I'm going to be flamed to a crispy finish for saying this but... magical might actually be a pretty accurate way of describing the iPad for some users. Before you grab the flamethrower let me explain:



The above Arthur C Clarke quote has often been used to get authors out of particularly sticky situations without resorting to technobable but it's also an interesting insight into the current world of computing. Show someone from... oh... 1980 a modern Macbook Pro and they'd not believe what it could do. Think about it for a second: a device with a screen less than an inch think that can play video files in quality better than the best movie theater of the day with sound seemingly out of nowhere streamed from a device on the other side of the planet and all without wires. It'd be witchcraft to them and the only reason us tech geeks don't see it as such is we've grown up with it, we saw that evolution (or just accepted it as default if you're young enough) and are comfortable with both technology and the actions need to work with it.

Now take a normal non-tech person today. They use computers but they don't really understand them. Heck, my dad uses one every day for work but as soon as he gets away from the instructions he's lost. My mother-in-law wants to learn 'em but can't get past the abstraction layer of mouse input and the mess of single, double and right click interactions. It's not just older people either, I've had to help uni students through exactly the same issues.

What if you could wrap up all the really cool stuff you can do with computers (web, e-mail, games, photos, video etc etc etc) and put it in a device and form factor that was both intuitive AND removed almost all of the maintenance tasks a regular computer would need? For those who currently struggle to get along with 'traditional' desktop computers... wouldn't that seem like magic to them?

Just a thought of course...

"Dave, are you there?" LMAO :)

Well put though :)
 
And in other news from Silicon Valley, in what looks like a reaction to Apple's announcement today that they've sold one million iPads in the first month, three technology giants have been found dead in an apparent suicide pact.

Bill Gates was discovered drowned in his own tears in a hermetically sealed room full of Microsoft prototypes, at his home in Medina overlooking Lake Washington.

Former Wall Street trader and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos expired in a gigantic warehouse full of unsold Kindles, after eating an apple laced with a poison yet to be identified.

There is however some speculation whether the death of Microsoft's hapless CEO Steve Ballmer was actually suicide. Witnesses say the 54 year old simply exploded in his office, after hearing the news of Apple's sales results.

Jerry Kaplan, founder of the now defunct GO Corporation was said to be in a thoughtful frame of mind, commenting to reporters: "These guys got it wrong. You've got to know when to get out of the game."

You need to copyright that! Best laugh I have had in a long time! :)
 
Channeling Jon Stewart

You need to copyright that! Best laugh I have had in a long time! :)

Dude, I'm touched by your kind words, and appreciate your good advice. I'm glad you liked it. Guess I was channeling Jon Stewart.

Copyright amendment already applied.
 
How many iPad sales are to developers?
Kinda glad I read this in one of the first posts. Had the same thoughts. Here in Europe, companies are dying to see how the device performs and want to make sure, the don't miss the train, so I believe, a non-neglectable part of that one million is sold to developers and companies. 50'000 Apps was the last number I heard. There probably are another 50'000 to come. Doubling this (according to previous poster) would result in 200'000 iPads sold to developers and companies. I personally believe, the number is even higher.

The sales exceeded my expectations, I admit. Nonetheless... ah, whatever. Nobody will listen in this thread. :)
 
Imagine the numbers if it would have been reasonably priced! :D

now go price the kindle DX, a reader only with similar size screen, look at specs and abilities of each, and spend the rest of the day trying to get your foot out of your mouth....
 
It really is amazing considering that it's very similar to the iPhone and today's economy, but then again maybe the iPad will create a magical recovery of the economy as well

I wouldn't be surprised. I love my iPad (16 GB Wi-Fi). I can see it outselling bunches of foreign-built laptops and netbooks. GO USA!!!

P.S. My sincere apologies to those of you overseas who don't have an iPad yet. Oh, and a good ol' USA shout-out to all of you in the British Commonwealth: "Yee-haw!"
 
I want an iPad

I hate going to my local stores and seeing all the people go ooooo ahhh about a product that is barely ever instock! arrr, I want one so bad!! haha
 
It is the only e-book reader to support three separate bookstores (Amazon, Kobo, and iBookstore), and is by far the most flexible e-book reader. That alone is sufficient for some people to consider it a "must have".


4. Don't forget B&N!

Cracks me up that all of the haters who predicted failure are now going on about how the 1,000,000+ of us who are using and enjoying these don't have any appreciation for the "uselessness" of the iPad.

Wonder if Apple is laughing on the way to the bank with their >$350,000,000, 28-day profit. Wow. What a failure. And BTW: hope the Halsey idiot who wrote the fail article on 1/28 has moved on to his new career, for which he's more suited: "Would you like to supersize that order?"

Must go now, and watch the baseball game on this iPad.
 
A large number of these iPads are being sold abroad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXK_jvuxL0g
Remember that they are talking about the price of a 16GB version.

I seriously doubt a large number of it, maybe less than 5%. That might be considered a large number by some people, but its not. Remember Apple is making it very very hard to get more than two units per address. You can't pay in cash, you can't use Apple gift cards, and they check by name on the credit card along with the address. So, considering those importers have to ask several people to buy an extra model, it's going to be a hard and long process to get a large number. Don't forget a lot of people are making their own profit trying to sell their units on ebay as well. So importers have to compete with them as well.
 
I seriously doubt a large number of it, maybe less than 5%. That might be considered a large number by some people, but its not. Remember Apple is making it very very hard to get more than two units per address. You can't pay in cash, you can't use Apple gift cards, and they check by name on the credit card along with the address. So, considering those importers have to ask several people to buy an extra model, it's going to be a hard and long process to get a large number. Don't forget a lot of people are making their own profit trying to sell their units on ebay as well. So importers have to compete with them as well.

These people make a lot of noise, and 100 iPads on the UK ebay may look impressive, but reality is that these iPads don't sell 5% (50,000), they are a drop in the water. There are not that many people in the UK who will be buying an iPad that they have never seen, not made for their country so you don't know what to expect, from an unknown, untrusted source at a highly exaggerated price. And buying a 3G from abroad would be madness. Make it 100 a week in the UK, 500 a week in Europe. And once the iPad is shipping in Europe, we will get lots of posts complaining how useless the iPad is, from people who bought them to sell on eBay and who couldn't get rid of them.
 
I seriously doubt a large number of it, maybe less than 5%. That might be considered a large number by some people, but its not. Remember Apple is making it very very hard to get more than two units per address. You can't pay in cash, you can't use Apple gift cards, and they check by name on the credit card along with the address. So, considering those importers have to ask several people to buy an extra model, it's going to be a hard and long process to get a large number. Don't forget a lot of people are making their own profit trying to sell their units on ebay as well. So importers have to compete with them as well.

These people make a lot of noise, and 100 iPads on the UK ebay may look impressive, but reality is that these iPads don't sell 5% (50,000), they are a drop in the water. There are not that many people in the UK who will be buying an iPad that they have never seen, not made for their country so you don't know what to expect, from an unknown, untrusted source at a highly exaggerated price. And buying a 3G from abroad would be madness. Make it 100 a week in the UK, 500 a week in Europe. And once the iPad is shipping in Europe, we will get lots of posts complaining how useless the iPad is, from people who bought them to sell on eBay and who couldn't get rid of them.

CNBC stated that estimates of iPad sales range from 4m to 10m. With the new iphone and the long awaited Verizon deal AAPL looks to have a very good year.

That estimate was made when there was no information about at all how the iPad was selling. Now we have one million per month in one market only. The one million seems to be the number that Apple can build. Ten million per year seems more like a low figure with the sales numbers we know today. Ten million by the end of the year looks very doable if Apple manages to increase production a bit. Four million is a sure thing by the end of July.
 
but, but......
It's just an oversized ipod touch....
it serves no purpose......
it won't replace a laptop or netbook, so who will buy this crap? :D



**may not be the case for everyone but for me it HAS replaced my netbook and with a few more really good apps, will soon replace my laptop. :)
 
but, but......
It's just an oversized ipod touch....
it serves no purpose......
it won't replace a laptop or netbook, so who will buy this crap? :D



**may not be the case for everyone but for me it HAS replaced my netbook and with a few more really good apps, will soon replace my laptop. :)

To be honest lots of people. At work I am considered to be an Apple fanboy. :apple: Yes I did the iPhone 1G and now the iPad. With the iPhone I got a few of the folks to dump Verizon just so they could have the iPhone.

With the iPad many are rethinking the need for a netbook or small laptop. One of my buddy's at work was seeing that the iPad could be the perfect "appliance" to have around. Surf the web, check emails, check out the news, review photos (via the Camera Connector Kit).

Working in the photographic retail business, the topic has come up among some of my customers as well. They ask about editing RAW images on the iPad - a no go really so far. But then many of them don't really need to edit in the field - and then the light bulb goes off in their heads. LOL

While the iWorks suite for the iPad is not perfect - it gets the job done for 80% of the people IMO. Add to that some comments I have read here on the MR - that folks with a desktop Mac and a laptop Mac are saying that their laptop is not being used as much. Sort of the way it is for me here so far.... I use the MBP at home now only for Hulu now.
 
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