Day One: 300,000 iPads Sold

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Apple has announced that on Saturday more than 300,000 iPads were sold, including pre-orders, deliveries to channel partners, and sales at Apple Retail Stores. Steve Jobs, no doubt from his iPad, was ebullient.

“It feels great to have the iPad launched into the world—it’s going to be a game changer. iPad users, on average, downloaded more than three apps and close to one book within hours of unpacking their new iPad.”

Regarding those applications and books, iPad users downloaded more than a million apps and 250,000 e-books from Apple’s iBookstore, but it’s the iPad numbers that matter. While the iPad had a solid first day of sales, the numbers weren’t exactly “magical.”

Just yesterday, sites like Apple 2.0 were reporting estimates by financial analysts like Gene Munster of between 600,000 and 700,000 iPad sales over the weekend. Given first day sales, and considering Best Buy was closed on Sunday, as well as some Apple Stores, that seems highly unlikely now.

 Without knowing Sunday’s likely drastically reduced sales, an exact count for the launch weekend can’t be had, but 300,000 is the number that Apple wants the focus to be on. The original iPhone sold 270,000 units during its first weekend. While it’s true both iPhone 3G and 3GS sold more than a million units on launch, both launches were international. So the iPad outsold the iPhone on launch day, but who bought those iPads may prove more interesting.

Again via Apple 2.0, of the 448 iPad buyers surveyed by Piper Jaffray, some 74 percent were Mac users. As Mac users represent only a tenth of the personal computer users in the U.S., that could be problematic. However, a much bigger problem exists for Amazon, with 13 percent of respondents owning Kindles already and buying iPads. Perhaps the iPad will become the multi-purpose device for content consumption, eliminating single-purpose devices like the Kindle. That would definitely help overcome any “PC gap” the iPad might face and measurably boost future sales.

But today, Apple has sold more than 300,000 iPads, more than the original iPhone, and even more could have been sold had the 3G iPad been available. And yet, despite outselling the iPhone, there just isn’t the same sense of “game changer” that the came inside the box with the iPhone.

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