New iPad Sales Top 3 Million in Under 4 Days

[lilo777]

I actually "own" a new iPad 4G LTE and I still own an iPad 2 Wifi so I am speaking from "experience".

All iPads have to be "activated" before they can be used and because Apple is the only brand of iPads, Apple knows how many new iPads have been purchased and activated by customers. They also know how many iPads were sold through their stores.

Apple has detailed records on which iPads were sold at their stores, which iPads were sold and activated through third party reseller and which iPads are still unaccounted for as unsold in the third party retail channel.

Because of all of this data, they can accurately account for all "known" sales which is what they are reporting. This is not the same as reporting "shipped" or numbers sold the the retail channel.

You got it totally wrong. Nobody questions Apple sales numbers. It's the Apple fans that still can't believe that people buy two times more Android phones than iPhones and that Android tablets market share has reached 45% as if Google did not receive exactly the same kind of activation data as Apple does. 3 million iPads sold in 3 days is good number - just meaningless. It's not like Apple fans are going to keep buying them at that rate. We all know that Apple fans carefully prepare for release date: sell old models on eBay and Craigs list one week before the announcement, then wait until 12:00am on pre-order day and keep pressing "BUY" button for hours until they get through the Apple's non-responsive web site (BTW, when will Apple finally learn how to do e-commerce? Amazon sells more stuff every regular day than Apple on the first pre-order day and their web site never goes down). However, it's just one day in a year (for a given product). That's it.

 

[ridley182]

You got it totally wrong. Nobody questions Apple sales numbers. It's the Apple fans that still can't believe that people buy two times more Android phones than iPhones and that Android tablets market share has reached 45% as if Google did not receive exactly the same kind of activation data as Apple does. 3 million iPads sold in 3 days is good number - just meaningless. It's not like Apple fans are going to keep buying them at that rate. We all know that Apple fans carefully prepare for release date: sell old models on eBay and Craigs list one week before the announcement, then wait until 12:00am on pre-order day and keep pressing "BUY" button for hours until they get through the Apple's non-responsive web site (BTW, when will Apple finally learn how to do e-commerce? Amazon sells more stuff every regular day than Apple on the first pre-order day and their web site never goes down). However, it's just one day in a year (for a given product). That's it.

Bitter tears...

SO TASTY!

 

[ApplesAndOrangs]

You got it totally wrong. Nobody questions Apple sales numbers. It's the Apple fans that still can't believe that people buy two times more Android phones than iPhones and that Android tablets market share has reached 45% as if Google did not receive exactly the same kind of activation data as Apple does. 3 million iPads sold in 3 days is good number - just meaningless. It's not like Apple fans are going to keep buying them at that rate. We all know that Apple fans carefully prepare for release date: sell old models on eBay and Craigs list one week before the announcement, then wait until 12:00am on pre-order day and keep pressing "BUY" button for hours until they get through the Apple's non-responsive web site (BTW, when will Apple finally learn how to do e-commerce? Amazon sells more stuff every regular day than Apple on the first pre-order day and their web site never goes down). However, it's just one day in a year (for a given product). That's it.

Lol apple will never fix their website. It gives the illusion of massive activity. You really think a company as rich as Apple can't fix it's servers?

 

[lilo777]

Lol apple will never fix their website. It gives the illusion of massive activity. You really think a company as rich as Apple can't fix it's servers?

I think with Tim Cook as CEO they have a chance to get it right.

 

[gnasher729]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I keep reading the posts on this thread that Apple sold 15 million iPad 2's last quarter, but what I remember reading on bgr was that Apple shipped 15.4 million. So my question is does shipped mean sold?

Shipped means shipped.

Sold according to stock market rules means "someone signed a contract that forces them to pay, and there is a good chance that Apple will get the money".

Sold to end users is almost the same, except when you steal an iPad from a store, or some get destroyed in a warehouse fire, Apple would still count them as sold because they got paid.

Apple doesn't publish "shipped" numbers. And if someone uses the word "shipped", you never know what they actually mean, because many people are careless with words.

 

[3282868]

You got it totally wrong. Nobody questions Apple sales numbers. It's the Apple fans that still can't believe that people buy two times more Android phones than iPhones and that Android tablets market share has reached 45% as if Google did not receive exactly the same kind of activation data as Apple does. 3 million iPads sold in 3 days is good number - just meaningless. It's not like Apple fans are going to keep buying them at that rate. We all know that Apple fans carefully prepare for release date: sell old models on eBay and Craigs list one week before the announcement, then wait until 12:00am on pre-order day and keep pressing "BUY" button for hours until they get through the Apple's non-responsive web site (BTW, when will Apple finally learn how to do e-commerce? Amazon sells more stuff every regular day than Apple on the first pre-order day and their web site never goes down). However, it's just one day in a year (for a given product). That's it.

Sorry, my eyes became glossy and my head began bobbing like a chicken reading this non-sensical explanation to Apple's "strategic" business model. It's brilliant, mate. You should teach this secret, you'd make a fortune.

 

[Icaras]

I think with Tim Cook as CEO they have a chance to get it right.

Wow, you're still at this? You've been posting in this thread here all day, friend. You're first post on this thread was time stamped 10:30am.

Like others have pointed out, you need a new job. Or just a job, in general. I think you've schooled us apple fanboys enough for one day

 

[TMay]

Wow, you're still at this? You've been posting in this thread here all day, friend. You're first post on this thread was time stamped 10:30am.

Like others have pointed out, you need a new job. Or just a job, in general. I think you've schooled us apple fanboys enough for one day

Hanging out is cheaper than buying some role play game, and you have to admit, he moves up the levels.

Why, I'll bet he's just a few more posts from being Troll, Commander First Class.

 

[Icaras]

Hanging out is cheaper than buying some role play game, and you have to admit, he moves up the levels.

Why, I'll bet he's just a few more posts from being Troll, Commander First Class.

I really didn't know trolls could gain so much stature. I guess that means Macrumors should add a second set of forum user titles just for trolls only, then we can get some real PvP action in here.

 

[Can't Stop]

Wow, you're still at this? You've been posting in this thread here all day, friend. You're first post on this thread was time stamped 10:30am.

Like others have pointed out, you need a new job. Or just a job, in general. I think you've schooled us apple fanboys enough for one day

He should change the nickname to trollo777.

 

[Tanax]

Also notice that they only reported sales when iPad 1 hit 1m and the iPad 2 hit 2m and iPad 3 hit 3m.

Haha! And also notice that I got 3 likes on my previous post.
It must be a sign!

 

[szleski]

Just noticed that availability of WiFi iPad improved to 1-2 weeks in a few international Apple online stores (was 2-3 weeks), just a few days after launch. They must have made a ton of them...

 

[kahkityoong]

That is a disappointing number to me considering it's for all 10 launch countries and all are among the largest in the world on a GNP and per capita income basis. Recall the original iPad sold 300K opening weekend, and that was just for two days since it was a Saturday launch and one country, the U.S.

Yes, very disappointing. That's why they had to call a meeting to discuss what to do with that truckload of cash Apple is sitting on.

 

[KPOM]

It's the Apple fans that still can't believe that people buy two times more Android phones than iPhones and that Android tablets market share has reached 45% as if Google did not receive exactly the same kind of activation data as Apple does.

I don't think Google gets exact "activation" data on the Kindle Fire since it doesn't access the Android Market/Play. Android's tablet market share is inflated by the Kindle Fire, which Google actually considers to be a competitor, and thus really should be considered a separate platform. The Fire isn't an Android tablet. It's an Amazon walled garden e-reader/movie device that happens to be running a forked version of Android's kernel. It could be built upon WebOS, Windows Phone, or Symbian for all that most of its buyers care.

----------

Just noticed that availability of WiFi iPad improved to 1-2 weeks in a few international Apple online stores (was 2-3 weeks), just a few days after launch. They must have made a ton of them...

In the US, both the Wi-Fi and 4G models are now shipping within 1-2 weeks.

 

[KnightWRX]

Can we really say they sold 3 million in 4 days (as impressive as the numbers still are no matter how you look at it) when a lot of people just ordered it up on the website a week prior to the official friday launch ?

Seems to me those days should also be counted. Unless 3 million only refers to actual in-store purchases at Apple and other retail outlets, something the press release does not state.

 

[kahkityoong]

Can we really say they sold 3 million in 4 days (as impressive as the numbers still are no matter how you look at it) when a lot of people just ordered it up on the website a week prior to the official friday launch ?

Yes.

 

[kdarling]

At any rate, that stock, if not sold will ship back to Apple, so no they don't consider it part of the 3 million unless it's actually sold to a consumer.

Any devices returned are accounted for separately.

Just as with the fact that shipments are counted as sales, the above is in their 10-K SEC filing.

I talked about it previously in this post

The numbers are sound, they sold 3 million. And while not all of them have made it into the end users hands, history proves they will not be gathering dust on selves next to Xooms and Playbooks.

Exactly. We all expect those 3 million will be bought by end users sooner or later. Even the ones returned by scalpers, which in some areas could be a pretty good number.

I see what your saying about how they can tell through activation but why wouldn't they say 3 million ipads activated?

You are correct. When Apple is talking about activations, they say so. In this case, they did not say so.

Apple rarely if ever quotes activations for iPads or iPods, as sales are far greater than activations, partly due to so many still-boxed items being bought for gifts (and by scalpers during a launch).

Carriers do quote activation numbers for iPhones. That's because they count both new iPhone activations AND the re-activations of used sold or hand-me-down phones. This boosts numbers over just new sales figures.

It's all about using the most favorable numbers. Apple is excellent at doing that.

 

[KnightWRX]

Yes.

Yes what ?

 

[TallManNY]

All iPads have to be "activated" before they can be used and because Apple is the only brand of iPads, Apple knows how many new iPads have been purchased and activated by customers. They also know how many iPads were sold through their stores.

Apple has detailed records on which iPads were sold at their stores, which iPads were sold and activated through third party reseller and which iPads are still unaccounted for as unsold in the third party retail channel.

Because of all of this data, they can accurately account for all "known" sales which is what they are reporting. This is not the same as reporting "shipped" or numbers sold the the retail channel.

If there were high numbers of iPads purchased to be scalped (maybe to be shipped to China or Brazil), then wouldn't the activation number significantly undercount the sold iPads? After all, the scalped iPads probably haven't made it to their final international destinations by now, but they certainly were sold.

Then again, if they weren't activated, it may be that scalpers quickly returned them. There are reports of scalpers returning iPads bought on Friday by the weekend. Those couldn't be immediately resold to consumers (they have to be opened up and checked before that can happen).

 

[vrDrew]

We all expect those 3 million will be bought by end users sooner or later. Even the ones returned by scalpers, which in some areas could be a pretty good number.

I think those 3 million iPads are already in consumers hands.

How do I know?

Look at the traffic-monitoring stats. Already "new iPads" account for just over 5% of total iPad web traffic. And if we assume that, pre-launch, there was a universe of 60 million iPad 1 and 2s out there, 5% of that number is.... three million.

IMHO, absent reliable sales numbers from each market participant, Web traffic monitoring is about the best way we can estimate where things are going. In some ways, its actually better than sales numbers, since it actually shows people using their devices. An Android phone that rarely, if ever, browses the web isn't going to do much for Google's bottom line - no matter how impressive its "activation" might look on someone's press release.

(Update, I see the site provides a constantly updated hourly feed. The number is up to 9% as of this morning...)

 

[kdarling]

IMHO, absent reliable sales numbers from each market participant, Web traffic monitoring is about the best way we can estimate where things are going.

While good for some things, web stats are the worst source to make sales estimates from.

For example, web usage stats originally falsely indicated (and probably still do) that there were twice as many iPads in the world as iPhones and iPod touchs, back when iPads were just starting to sell.

People surf a lot on iPads, especially on new iPads.

 

[linux2mac]

Can we really say they sold 3 million in 4 days (as impressive as the numbers still are no matter how you look at it) when a lot of people just ordered it up on the website a week prior to the official friday launch ?

Seems to me those days should also be counted. Unless 3 million only refers to actual in-store purchases at Apple and other retail outlets, something the press release does not state.

What we can "really say" is that the iPad is the King of tablets and will be for a very very long time.

 

[samcraig]

I think those 3 million iPads are already in consumers hands.

How do I know?

Look at the traffic-monitoring stats. Already "new iPads" account for just over 5% of total iPad web traffic. And if we assume that, pre-launch, there was a universe of 60 million iPad 1 and 2s out there, 5% of that number is.... three million.

IMHO, absent reliable sales numbers from each market participant, Web traffic monitoring is about the best way we can estimate where things are going. In some ways, its actually better than sales numbers, since it actually shows people using their devices. An Android phone that rarely, if ever, browses the web isn't going to do much for Google's bottom line - no matter how impressive its "activation" might look on someone's press release.

(Update, I see the site provides a constantly updated hourly feed. The number is up to 9% as of this morning...)

Correlation does not imply causation. People with shiny new devices use them at the beginning heavily. Downloading apps. Visiting sites. Setting up their tablets the way they want, etc. Especially with a new screen - people are no doubt visiting their favorite sites to see what a difference the retina display makes.

You can't look at net traffic and determine how sales are for any device.

 

[vrDrew]

While good for some things, web stats are the worst source to make sales estimates from.

For example, web usage stats originally falsely indicated (and probably still do) that there were twice as many iPads in the world as iPhones and iPod touchs, back when iPads were just starting to sell.

People surf a lot on iPads, especially on new iPads.

Web stats are, for a lot of reasons, imperfect. But this particular stat is comparing "old iPads" and "new iPads" - so its really an "Apples" to "newer Apples" sort of thing. And combined with Apple's press release, and Phil Schiller's comments, yesterday - it does somewhat lead you to believe they're not counting channel inventory in that number.

You'd have to do a lot to convince me that, given the breadth of Apps available for the iPad, that web monitoring over-represents the iPad amongst competing tablets. If anything, it would tend to undercount the iPad. Cause there are about 200,000 other things you can do with an iPad; versus about ten with most Android tablets.

 

[KnightWRX]

Web stats are, for a lot of reasons, imperfect. But this particular stat is comparing "old iPads" and "new iPads" - so its really an "Apples" to "newer Apples" sort of thing.

Newer Apples tend to see more use in the first few days/weeks than "Apples", I think that was kdarling's point.