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Over 500,000 iPads Sold, Apple Delays International Delivery until May
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Excellent marketing by Apple once again.
Base your production on numbers just below your estimations, then send out a statement to the press that the demand is far higher than predicted. This generates extra publicity ("We didn't expect our product to be this popular!") and people will start wondering why they haven't gotten one yet, if everybody else has. Pure genius.
Base your production on numbers just below your estimations, then send out a statement to the press that the demand is far higher than predicted. This generates extra publicity ("We didn't expect our product to be this popular!") and people will start wondering why they haven't gotten one yet, if everybody else has. Pure genius.
The Japanese toilet manufacturers are so pro-Japanese, those right-wing b****rds. They treat us Europeans with contempt. They don't sell their toilets to us in Europe. And yet... their toilets are so desirable, with all those buttons and noises and remote controls, and warm fuzzy seats. But hey, Japanese toilet manufacturers, you've lost my business.
When people laugh, do you also feel they laugh about you, even if they don't?
I was at an Apple store yesterday and there were plenty for sale. While I played with one 2 women came in and had one of best conversations I've heard...
"This looks cool, it could be the small computer I've been looking for."
"Neat, it uses apps from the app store."
"Oh, it's just a big iPhone."
She puts it down and leaves the store. I think a lot of the general public that isn't as effected by the RDF is going to do exactly like she did.
Now that I've played with one I think it's a neat device, but it has its problems. Weight is a huge issue. I can't see anyone holding this up with 1 hand while reading for very long. Typing is horrible. I tried both orientations, thumbs, no thumbs, etc. I can type much much faster on my iPhone. The iWork apps just seemed gimmicky to me.
The positives were the screen, games, and some iPad specific apps. The screen really is amazing quality. I played a few games and they were a lot of fun and well adapted to the iPad. They also had a few iPad specific apps like email and the weather that looked nice. Too bad email, for me anyways, is mostly typing.
I tried hard to justify buying one yesterday, but in the end I'll have to wait until my app is closer to needing hardware level testing.
"This looks cool, it could be the small computer I've been looking for."
"Neat, it uses apps from the app store."
"Oh, it's just a big iPhone."
She puts it down and leaves the store. I think a lot of the general public that isn't as effected by the RDF is going to do exactly like she did.
Now that I've played with one I think it's a neat device, but it has its problems. Weight is a huge issue. I can't see anyone holding this up with 1 hand while reading for very long. Typing is horrible. I tried both orientations, thumbs, no thumbs, etc. I can type much much faster on my iPhone. The iWork apps just seemed gimmicky to me.
The positives were the screen, games, and some iPad specific apps. The screen really is amazing quality. I played a few games and they were a lot of fun and well adapted to the iPad. They also had a few iPad specific apps like email and the weather that looked nice. Too bad email, for me anyways, is mostly typing.
I tried hard to justify buying one yesterday, but in the end I'll have to wait until my app is closer to needing hardware level testing.
Once again MacRumors is flooded with comments that show no understanding of how [business | the law | reality] works. This is "horrible" (that Apple cannot keep up with demand). They "should have planned a worldwide release" (with what stock of products?). This will be a "black eye for Apple" (because the market hates success). This is just to "fix the WiFi issue" (that almost no iPad owners are experiencing).
Translation of most of these comments: Waaaaaaaaaaahh!!! I want my toy now!!!!!
I'm sympathetic to those of you who now have to wait longer. That sucks. The iPad really is a magical device. But given the realities of the business world, what can you do? Oh, right, moan about it here. Never mind, carry on.
Translation of most of these comments: Waaaaaaaaaaahh!!! I want my toy now!!!!!
I'm sympathetic to those of you who now have to wait longer. That sucks. The iPad really is a magical device. But given the realities of the business world, what can you do? Oh, right, moan about it here. Never mind, carry on.
Bank on it, they can't keep up with demand over here and the 3g version has yet to ship. Both Best Buy stores around my house were out of stock last night.
Naysayers again fall on their faces
So much for the doom and gloom naysayers.
"There is no market and no function that this device fulfill."
"The name of this gadget will kill it. Women will never buy something called the iPad."
"The sky is falling, the sky is falling."
And best of all
"No Flash, no Effin Way!"
Methinks they were a tad wrong. Again. Sounds just like what they said about the iPhone, the iPod, iTunes store, the iBook, the iMac, and the original 128k Mac (which is the first computer I owned, shows how old I am). Slow learners, send them out for special ed.
So much for the doom and gloom naysayers.
"There is no market and no function that this device fulfill."
"The name of this gadget will kill it. Women will never buy something called the iPad."
"The sky is falling, the sky is falling."
And best of all
"No Flash, no Effin Way!"
Methinks they were a tad wrong. Again. Sounds just like what they said about the iPhone, the iPod, iTunes store, the iBook, the iMac, and the original 128k Mac (which is the first computer I owned, shows how old I am). Slow learners, send them out for special ed.
really, and what documented proof do you have to back that claim up? i'm waiting.....
That's a lot of suckers. And even more *projected* suckers by the end of this year, and triple that number of suckers projected in two years. We'll be getting into an astronomical amount of suckers, who apparently never learn, because many more will keep buying them.
Adobe is apparently taking Apple and its suckers very, very seriously, however, as are all the other manufacturers desperately trying to copy the iPad, which Apple happens to be selling to suckers.
At the iPad event in January the had a list of countries, all major European markets where covered and a couple of other industrialized countries.
Lol. Get APPLE things first. That's about it. Japan always gets everything before us. Also there are alot of things that even launch here that japan and Europe get. Finally we have a good us based electronics company so we can get some stuff first for a change.
Interesting. So both you and those ladies misunderstood what the iPad can do. The weight is no issue for reading (at least nothing I've experienced). One-handed holding is my norm for the iPad.
Typing is, surprisingly, so much better than on the iPhone. I never expected to be able to touch type, but sure enough once I realized you cannot lean on the keys, I started to touch type. Within a day I was typing the right way.
iWork is not as powerful as the desktop versions, but I've worked with spreadsheets with hundreds of rows and columns already, and imported a novel into Pages with no problems.
As for the ladies, it's "just a big iPhone" in the same way that a swimming pool is just a big tub.
I'm a Brit and I agree too. They're a for-profit company not an aid agency. The US is the easiest market for them to sell into and the place where they have most control; of course they're going to satisfy as much demand as possible in the US when they have limited supply.It's an AMERICAN COMPANY, we get first dibs, deal with it.
Also, this is a brand new product and not just an iPhone 3G -> 3GS type of revision so if, once they get hundreds of thousands of units out there, they discover something weird in a very small fraction of units, like RF emissions killing kittens and puppies or something (the wiFi issue being a more serious real example here), then it's much easier to diagnose those sorts of issues if the affected units are in the home country close to the developers and other corporate backup.
- Julian
So as a Canadian who bought one on April 3 while on vacation... I now have an extra 6 weeks to be the cool kid on the block. LOL.
One thing importers should know... the App Store application only works with a US iTunes accounts. You can still buy apps using iTunes on your desktop and then sync. And there are a lot if iPad apps available now. You just can't access the App Store from your iPad.
One thing you cannot get from your non-US iTunes account is any of the Apple iPad apps (iBooks, Pages, Numbers, Keynote). If you need these, one approach for now would be to open a new iTunes account with a different email address using a pre-paid credit card with a "valid" USA address of your choice (like a McDonald's or something). I assume this will be "fixed" once the iPad goes international.
One thing importers should know... the App Store application only works with a US iTunes accounts. You can still buy apps using iTunes on your desktop and then sync. And there are a lot if iPad apps available now. You just can't access the App Store from your iPad.
One thing you cannot get from your non-US iTunes account is any of the Apple iPad apps (iBooks, Pages, Numbers, Keynote). If you need these, one approach for now would be to open a new iTunes account with a different email address using a pre-paid credit card with a "valid" USA address of your choice (like a McDonald's or something). I assume this will be "fixed" once the iPad goes international.
My own proof. I have experienced the wi-fi drop put at work with one type of router, and had zero issues at home with another brand of router. And no, the distance had nothing to do with it.
If it was a hardware issue, where the antenna was not getting proper reception, it would be evident in all of the first batch of these iPad's, and would have been obvious to spot in quality control. A software issue is a lot harder to track down with different types of routers, and this may be how it escaped quality control.
Apple knows exactly how much revenue they get from every outlet in every country - it's called accounting and they have a whole department of people who do just that. Besides being an American company, they know that the US is the country with the most opportunity for sales for a new product launch. Name another country in the world were they would have sold 500,000 units in one week. If you go by Steve's numbers at the OX 4.0 session, it was over 650,000 in one week. Any company in their right mind would choose to launch in a market where they will have the best numbers. I would also bet that if Apple could have done a launch in more places they would have. Imagine the press release they could have done with "3 million sold in one week in 10 countries". I'm sure they would have done that if they could so there is some logical reason they did not. But to say they "treat the rest of the world with contempt" is going a little overboard. I'm sure someone will be glad you decided not to get one so they can have it.
Thank you for keeping us all up to date on your decision not to buy an iPad. It's so helpful for us all to know.
How ever, as evidenced by these latest news from Apple, quite a few people who are not you HAVE decided to buy an iPad. That's kinda the more important story here, you know.
What makes you think they could have produced more? Maybe they are making them as fast as they can.