New iPad Sales Top 3 Million in Under 4 Days

[G5isAlive]

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.

Yesterday I said it was a red flag that Apple chose today to announce its dividend and buyback program. It looks like I may be right and that they were trying to bury the iPad launch sales #s and protect the stock value, esp. given the timing of when each was announced, one at market open, the other after market closed.

are you kidding me? how many android tablet makers would KILL to have those numbers in TOTAL? The one exception might be, MIGHT BE, Kindle Fire that managed to post those kind of numbers FOR A QUARTER, that was the holiday quarter when sales are highest.

Maybe a disappointing number to you, for whatever reason, but the shareholders are crying all the way to the bank and the competition is just crying.

 

[Taz Mangus]

What planet are you from? Missing 10 days a year must make your people suffer so.

Don't you know for 10 days he warps into an alternate reality where his truth is actually reality.

 

[Chlloret]

If they are sitting in a non-Apple store, then they're already counted as "sold" by Apple.



Apple didn't have to deliver 3 million iPads within 3 days. They just have to begin to ship them.

Apple counts sales from the moment that payment is probable and title leaves their hands. E.g. usually when shipped.

For example, if Walmart ordered 1 million iPads, and those were still on the way from China or in a Walmart distribution center, then those iPads count in the 3 million total. Ditto for all the other iPads bought by resellers around the world.

We don't know how many actually were bought by an end customer during that time period, but that's not the point of such a press release.

The headlines actually tell us far more about reseller confidence, if you think about it.

Nope, thats Samsungs strategy. Apple counts the activated devices, that means actual opened, switched on devices at the customers home. Not some units on a slow ship from china.

 

[CAgremlin]

Agreed... Pre-orders are wonderful.

My mom got a pre-order iPad. I asked the FedEx driver how many iPads he delivered when he arrived at our house on Friday.

His truck had 45 iPads on Friday. Now imagine how many other trucks FedEx had running around the country on Friday.

Mindblowing...

I had mine held at our small FedEx office by our small airport. Our large-sized county only has about 425,000 people, with 325K concentrated within about 25 miles of the Airport.

FedEx office told me they had 'north of 100' on hold for pickup, and that both the little Cessnas that they fly into here from the nearest hub were packed to the gills with iPads!

 

[kckl]

Comparing Android based (7inch and 9 inch) tablet market share to iPad market share is not a fair comparison. It's kind of like comparing market share of Nokia feature phone + smart phone to iPhone market share.

To be honest, I have seen more iPads around rather than other Android tabs. There is no statistical data to support but just measure by eyeballs. It's not about being fanboys or not. It's the fact that Samsung makes more display for iPad than its own tabs....

By the way, I'm a fanboy because I bought AAPL at $8.5 right before Jobs came back to Apple... and I'm still holding it.

The proper perspective is that last quarter Android tablets reached 45% market and are expected to overtake iTab in a year or two. Remember that there 355 days in a year. All (well most) Apple fans buy the new product on the same day. Android fans do not have such mentality.

 

[gigaguy]

sorry if already mentioned, but I guarantee the return rate on the 3 is the largest ever too. so many people., including myself, have returned that extra one (or more) they preordered to resell. so the true sales total I believe is less.

 

[teknishn]

The proper perspective is that last quarter Android tablets reached 45% market and are expected to overtake iTab in a year or two. Remember that there 355 days in a year. All (well most) Apple fans buy the new product on the same day. Android fans do not have such mentality.

This is complete BS. 2 things you're seeing here with this magic 45% number pulled out of IDCs arse. One there has been a major influx of everyones 'me too' tablets... which, incidentally, aren't selling. Two, you have the $200 sold at a loss POS hardware, POS built 7" Kindle Fire that sold like hot cakes during holiday launch. I would hardly call the Fire an Android product. It has an old version of Android deep under the hood... and thats about it. The rest is Amazon, all Amazon. Google doesn't get a dime for it. Furthermore, Amazon had to dramatically reduce its orders for Kindle Fire in manufacturing after the brief hot sales.

With the rumored $150 Nexus Tablet from Google (made by Asus) supposedly hitting sometime this year, Google will continue to be able to claim inroads on the tablet market simply by moving a bunch of cheap crap like they do with the bulk of the phones. The only Android tablet that deserves an ounce of respect next to an iPad is the Transformer Prime... soon to be Transformer Infinity etc. That is a quality well engineered product.... and the only one running ICS too I might add.

It will be interesting to see how the others decide to compete with the 'new ipads' spec sheet. My guess is they wont come close on the screen for at least another year.... maybe longer. The new transformer infinity is supposedly getting a 1080p screen, but we'll have to see how they deal with the tax on the tegra 3s weak gpu and also the battery life. Not to mention they only sell in quarter what apple sells in a couple weeks in terms of volume.

 

[Chlloret]

sorry if already mentioned, but I guarantee the return rate on the 3 is the largest ever too. so many people., including myself, have returned that extra one (or more) they preordered to resell. so the true sales total I believe is less.

You unpacked and activated your unwanted second (or more) iPads? Otherwise its not counted yet.

 

[aristotle]

If they are sitting in a non-Apple store, then they're already counted as "sold" by Apple.

Citation needed. The consensus is that "sold" from an Apple perspective means "activated". Every iPad has to be activated before it can be used so Apple would have an accurate count of the number in customers hands and in active use.

Apple didn't have to deliver 3 million iPads within 3 days. They just have to begin to ship them.

Apple counts sales from the moment that payment is probable and title leaves their hands. E.g. usually when shipped.

Again, citation needed. If what you said was true then they would not break out "sales" in their stores either. They have an accurate count of how many were sold through their stores and an accurate count of those sold through third parties which have been opened up and "activated".

For example, if Walmart ordered 1 million iPads, and those were still on the way from China or in a Walmart distribution center, then those iPads count in the 3 million total. Ditto for all the other iPads bought by resellers around the world.

Citation needed. What you say goes against he consensus and what Apple has reported in the past. They have said that their numbers are the total "sold" in previous keynotes.

We don't know how many actually were bought by an end customer during that time period, but that's not the point of such a press release.

The headlines actually tell us far more about reseller confidence, if you think about it.

Apple would know how many were sold through their stores and be able to correlate the number of activations of devices "not" sold through their stores and use that number to get a fairly accurate number of "sold" units.

 

[MacinDoc]

The numbers were reported on most tech sites. Do you guys even read anything but MacRumors and AppleInsider?

Here is the link.



Again, only Apple fans keep making this point. Probably because they believe that iPad inventories in BestBuy, Target, WalMart etc. should be considered as "sold".

I don't know where you live, but in the city where I live, all five BB retail centers are completely sold out of every model, with none available online, both Apple stores are completely sold out, and there are none available yet for pre-order tomorrow. (although this may be because tomorrow's pre-orders have not yet been made available). Can't comment on WalMart, and we have no Target stores. None of the five Future Shops in town have any in stock, and none are available online. It's not like the Playbook, which had more on store shelves than in customers' hands. I suspect that for the time being, Apple is likely selling as many as it can make.

 

[lilo777]

Comparing Android based (7inch and 9 inch) tablet market share to iPad market share is not a fair comparison. It's kind of like comparing market share of Nokia feature phone + smart phone to iPhone market share.

To be honest, I have seen more iPads around rather than other Android tabs. There is no statistical data to support but just measure by eyeballs. It's not about being fanboys or not. It's the fact that Samsung makes more display for iPad than its own tabs....

By the way, I'm a fanboy because I bought AAPL at $8.5 right before Jobs came back to Apple... and I'm still holding it.

Did not you forget about 10.1" Android tablets? Perhaps you consider them in a category above iPads? BTW, size is not the only important feature. Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7" tablet has faster CPU than iPad, OLED screen, 2MP fron facing camera etc. and costs more than iPad.

 

[dejo]

I predicted this

You did? Where?

 

[lilo777]

I don't know where you live, but in the city where I live, all five BB retail centers are completely sold out of every model, with none available online, both Apple stores are completely sold out, and there are none available yet for pre-order tomorrow. (although this may be because tomorrow's pre-orders have not yet been made available). Can't comment on WalMart, and we have no Target stores. None of the five Future Shops in town have any in stock, and none are available online. It's not like the Playbook, which had more on store shelves than in customers' hands. I suspect that for the time being, Apple is likely selling as many as it can make.

Unlike you, I live in US. Our stores are fully stocked with new iPads. And even if there might be a shortage for a week or two it's irrelevant because the original statement was about annual sales. And, BTW, I am sure even your stores have plenty of iPad 2s. Those are still counted toward iPad sales.

 

[samcraig]

A lot of hype re: past two launches of the iPad and lack of supply. There was even talk that Apple wouldn't be able to meet demand with the new iPad. I'm guessing many people pre-ordered in hopes that they would definitely get one instead of waiting or the feeling of being "left out" on Day 1.

 

[lilo777]

Apple would know how many were sold through their stores and be able to correlate the number of activations of devices "not" sold through their stores and use that number to get a fairly accurate number of "sold" units.

FYI, just like iDevices, every Android device goes through activation too and Google has exact numbers for activated devices and those numbers are way ahead of the numbers for iOS devices (that's total numbers, Apple is still ahead in tablet category).

 

[Michael Scrip]

sorry if already mentioned, but I guarantee the return rate on the 3 is the largest ever too. so many people., including myself, have returned that extra one (or more) they preordered to resell. so the true sales total I believe is less.

How many people is "so many people" anyway?

I bet it's insignificant compared to the normal "buy one and keep it" sales of this new iPad.

But I'm curious... if you return an unopened iPad... can the store still sell it as new?

If so... it won't stay on the shelf for long.

 

[Rogifan]

Ok so which is it? Is the 3M activated devices or something else?

 

[kckl]

Thank you for the clarification, I don't really have all the knowledge you've accumulated. I need to do real work now. By the way, what do you think about the shrinking market share of iPad will affect Apple stock price?

Did not you forget about 10.1" Android tablets? Perhaps you consider them in a category above iPads? BTW, size is not the only important feature. Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7" tablet has faster CPU than iPad, OLED screen, 2MP fron facing camera etc. and costs more than iPad.

 

[Chlloret]

Ok so which is it? Is the 3M activated devices or something else?

Activated.

 

[TheBronx]

If they are sitting in a non-Apple store, then they're already counted as "sold" by Apple.



Apple didn't have to deliver 3 million iPads within 3 days. They just have to begin to ship them.

Apple counts sales from the moment that payment is probable and title leaves their hands. E.g. usually when shipped.

For example, if Walmart ordered 1 million iPads, and those were still on the way from China or in a Walmart distribution center, then those iPads count in the 3 million total. Ditto for all the other iPads bought by resellers around the world.

We don't know how many actually were bought by an end customer during that time period, but that's not the point of such a press release.

The headlines actually tell us far more about reseller confidence, if you think about it.

Source?

 

[Rocketman]

This morning there was a conference call with market makers.

iPad1 had about 300,000 unit sales first weekend, iPad2 had deferred delivery so Steve could see it and it had a different roll out scheme.

Steve took $1 in salary and darn few stock options, and the few he was issued, the government took away 100% based on a GAP mis-pricing (standard pricing). His widow suffered his legal and financial and medical pain.

Tim and the other executives were awarded $60m-$330m in stock options.

http://9to5mac.com/2012/01/09/apple-publishes-2012-proxy-statement-for-investors/

What say the board posthumously awards Steve ('s estate) $1/3B in stock? Deal with it in the planned buyback.

Just Rocketman

 

[Casiotone]

FYI, just like iDevices, every Android device goes through activation too and Google has exact numbers for activated devices and those numbers are way ahead of the numbers for iOS devices (that's total numbers, Apple is still ahead in tablet category).

Well those stats you linked earlier in the thread were about "shipped" devices, not activations.

While Google brags about the number of Android activations (that includes tons of crippled cheap Android phones sold with voice contracts and limited internet access), as far as I know they never disclosed how many of these activations were tablets.

If their tablets activation numbers were that great, wouldn't they brag about them?

And they sold 3 millions new iPads only according to Apple press release, it doesn't include the iPad 2.

"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.

 

[RalfTheDog]

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)

Worldwide or us only?

Those were the numbers for Tulsa Oklahoma.

 

[lilo777]

Thank you for the clarification, I don't really have all the knowledge you've accumulated. I need to do real work now. By the way, what do you think about the shrinking market share of iPad will affect Apple stock price?

The market share alone is not sufficient to predict AAPL dynamic. For example, Apple was able to increase iPhone sales even with the stagnant (if not decreasing) smart phone market share. That's because the market as whole was growing fast thus allowing Apple to grow their sales. And BTW, iPhone sales are much more important for AAPL price than iPad sales. History is probably a better predictor here. Remember how MSFT reached $600 billion capitalization? The company got too big. There was no room for natural growth. They had to introduce a dividend. Does this sound familiar? MSFT capitalization is at $270 B now. And MSFT is actually operating in a better market than Apple. They sell a lot to enterprises. Those products are less prone to commoditization than consumer electronics. AAPL will inevitable peak at some point (they all do). The only question is when. I think it's close but I am not en expert.

 

[cvaldes]

Ok so which is it? Is the 3M activated devices or something else?

Apple would know how many were shipped from their own online store purchases, as well as how many were sold in their own bricks-and-mortar Apple Stores.

My guess is that their channel sales partners also provide aggregate consumer sales data (depletions) on a daily basis, partly for channel shipment forecasting.

Apple probably doesn't need to know/really care how many white 32GB iPads were sold at the AT&T store in Salina, KS on Sunday, but they would need to know overall how many were sold nationwide by AT&T so they could accurately schedule production run quantities. How AT&T allocates quantities to their individual bricks-and-mortars shops is AT&T's responsibility, not Apple's.

Since some purchases are probably gifts that haven't yet been presented to the recipient, the activations wouldn't be accurate (although it would be fairly close). Also, an iPad that is sitting on a UPS or FedEx truck is a sale, even if the final delivery hasn't been made.