iPad sales numbers: predictions and reality

0Daniel Ionescu • 5th Apr 2010 • Tech

Sunday, April 4th — Brian Caulfield, Forbes

Apple sold between 600,000 and 700,000 iPads during the tablet computer’s first day of sales Saturday, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster wrote in a note to investors Saturday. That’s up from the range of between 200,000 to 300,000 units Munster had predicted earlier. Munster cited “longer than expected lines” and good iPad availability.

Monday, April 5th — David Sarno, LA Times

After months of marketing hype that had fans grabbing their wallets this weekend, Apple announced Monday that it sold more than 300,000 of its new tablet computers Saturday — a one-day total that topped the 2007 debut for the original iPhone.

My PCWorld colleague JR Raphael says it like it is:

Now, to be fair, Mr. Munster is the same fella who completely screwed the pooch when it comes to iPad sales estimates. Munster upped his prediction on Saturday night, saying he expected Apple to sell 600,000 to 700,000 of the suckers. He’d originally guessed 200,000 to 300,000. The M-man blamed an overestimate of online presales for his slip-up.

— Note that the initial prediction was pretty much spot on, though JR’s analysis is a must-read. Also, I’m not particularly convinced that Apple would have sold another 300,000+ on the second day (Easter Sunday), but I’m sure the first-day sales numbers would have definitely topped 0.5 million if the iPad was launched world-wide simultaneously.