iPad Orders Drop Sharply (article)

[Martin Castillo]

I think that Steve Jobs has the left slanted liberal media in his back pocket and the Apple marketing machine is trying to create over demand for their soon to be artificial shortage.

I haven't even looked at buying one yet but spoke to someone who couldn't complete the transaction online over the weekend. He told me that apple is giving 12 months free financing on orders over $999.00(unconfirmed). If this is true Apple is trying to boost their profits buy underminding our economy. People need to be saving instead of going deeper into debt. I love the designed in USA and manufactured in China!

I digress, I am waiting for CNET to do a review on the WiFi only version before I make the decision to purchase the 3G flavor.

Only time will tell

 

[admanimal]

I haven't even looked at buying one yet but spoke to someone who couldn't complete the transaction online over the weekend. He told me that apple is giving 12 months free financing on orders over $999.00(unconfirmed). If this is true Apple is trying to boost their profits buy underminding our economy. People need to be saving instead of going deeper into debt. I love the designed in USA and manufactured in China!
)

They always have some kind of offer involving signing up for a new credit card. Of course your credit has to be good enough to qualify for a particular amount. It's not really any different from the 0% interest deals you can get by signing up for many other cards.

 

[bossxii]

Not really surprised by the numbers drastically falling. Day one hype and all the tech sites that have members that had to have it would order day one. If they maintain 1000 an hour that's still pretty high for three weeks until launch day. I was guessing 100k to 200k of pre orders to be good considering it's US only pre order, and they give the option to reserve/pickup in store. Not to mention the fact plenty of people enjoy camping out to be the first in line/first to get their hands on it.

If the sales maintained anywhere near 20k an hour for 3 days... Apple would be screwed trying to keep up with demand. 72 hours x 20k a pop (1.4mill), talk about sold out. Sounds like it's off and running at a rather brisk pace. Good news for the development community to know they will have a good customer base for their new iPad apps.

 

[gwynne]

e told me that apple is giving 12 months free financing on orders over $999.00(unconfirmed). If this is true Apple is trying to boost their profits buy underminding our economy.

Yes, it's definitely Apple's fault when people choose to obtain credit. Personal responsibility be darned. It would be much better if companies did not extend credit to consumers, thus protecting us from ourselves.

Also, I haven't at all noticed that practically every major purchase I've made in the last five years (TV, bedroom furniture, new HVAC) has been offered to me at 0% financing terms, so I think we should take a close, hard look at Apple.

They are clearly behind the wheel of some sort of economical doomsday machine.

 

[dagomike]

I think that Steve Jobs has the left slanted liberal media in his back pocket and the Apple marketing machine is trying to create over demand for their soon to be artificial shortage.

I haven't even looked at buying one yet but spoke to someone who couldn't complete the transaction online over the weekend. He told me that apple is giving 12 months free financing on orders over $999.00(unconfirmed). If this is true Apple is trying to boost their profits buy underminding our economy. People need to be saving instead of going deeper into debt. I love the designed in USA and manufactured in China!

I digress

LOL.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

You misunderstood me. People aren't using it because it hasn't even been shipped yet. Way to over-react based on your assumption of what I meant. You don't need to justify usage to me.

What will dictate whether or not the product is TRULY a hit is continued adoption, use, development, and many factors. Not just day 1/week 1 sales.

My reaction was to what you wrote. If you meant broad adoption you should have said broad adoption. Broad adoption and use are two different concepts.

 

[samcraig]

My reaction was to what you wrote. If you meant broad adoption you should have said broad adoption. Broad adoption and use are two different concepts.

Again - you're missing the point. NO ONE HAS THE IPAD IN THEIR HANDS YET. There's no USE yet. There's no way for people to determine success or failure of the device just based on day 1/week 1 of sales.

To play devil's advocate. Everyone gets their iPad on release day and there are major problems. Or the device does do or live up to what people had wanted or thought they wanted. Fill in the blank reason here. Regardless of how many were sold - the device isn't a "hit"

Conversely - a product could have a very low first day/first week sales - and when it's released gains momentum and becomes a breakout HIT.

Sales figures (before release date) alone don't determine success.

 

[diabolic]

If the iPhone/iPod never existed - do you think the iPad would be as popular on day one? You're kidding yourself, in my opinion, if you do.

No it wouldn't. Just as we saw before the iPhone launch we'd have people saying that a touchscreen will never work well and they can't understand how people can type at all without a physical keyboard. The iPhone proved the touchscreen can be done relatively well as a mainstream input device.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Again - you're missing the point. NO ONE HAS THE IPAD IN THEIR HANDS YET. There's no USE yet. There's no way for people to determine success or failure of the device just based on day 1/week 1 of sales.

To play devil's advocate. Everyone gets their iPad on release day and there are major problems. Or the device does do or live up to what people had wanted or thought they wanted. Fill in the blank reason here. Regardless of how many were sold - the device isn't a "hit"

Conversely - a product could have a very low first day/first week sales - and when it's released gains momentum and becomes a breakout HIT.

Sales figures (before release date) alone don't determine success.

Nah. I think you are the one missing the point. People don't go willy nilly buying $500-800 gadgets sight unseen unless they know they are going to be using them. Pre-ordered units are sold. The iPhone OS is no secret. People who pre-ordered know what its about, what it can and can't do. They will be using it (in your original post you did say "using" in capital letters).

Again, whether their is a more broad adoption of the iPad is unknown, but that is not what you said, you said "using." However, based on iPhone sales I'd say the iPad's chart has unqualified hit all over. These are not Zune sales numbers here.

 

[applesupergeek]

A rather pointless article if their purpose is somehow to insinuate lack of demand for the ipad, for a couple of simple reasons:

A. Max 2 devices per person really limits demand.

B. Max 2 devices even for businesses limits demand even more.

C. Large majority of people (by some accounts) looking for the 3g enabled version.

Taking all these in mind it's a no brainer in terms of sales decline. These things are selling as hotcakes, to me 170,000 in a few days solely in the U.S. with sales limits and no 3g model, means when the 3g ipad hits the UK, Europe and Canada in a few months we will be looking at about 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 million sold. Not bad!

 

[samcraig]

Nah. I think you are the one missing the point. People don't go willy nilly buying $500-800 gadgets sight unseen unless they know they are going to be using them. Pre-ordered units are sold. The iPhone OS is no secret. People who pre-ordered know what its about, what it can and can't do. They will be using it (in your original post you did say "using" in capital letters).

Again, whether their is a more broad adoption of the iPad is unknown, but that is not what you said, you said "using." However, based on iPhone sales I'd say the iPad's chart has unqualified hit all over. These are not Zune sales numbers here.

We can go back and forth all day. No one has the iPad in their hands. Right now - current usage is at ZERO. Declaring the iPad a hit right now is premature. That's not being negative. It's being in touch with reality. When the week of April 3rd rolls around and there are great reviews, continued great sales and people are at home with their devices USING them - then you can state it's a hit.

But maybe you have a reading comprehension problem and for the 3rd time don't understand what I mean by use. I think I've been pretty clear. But let me rephrase it. When did you last use your iPad? If your answer is never - then you might finally understand what I'm saying.

I'm not responding to you/this specific topic anymore - it's fruitless

.

C. Large majority of people (by some accounts) looking for the 3g enabled version.

The one err here is that the 3G version was available for pre-sale too. The numbers are mixed in there. Maybe people are waiting longer before buying a 3G version until they see/play with a wifi version. But the 3G version is still part of the sales figure

 

[Nebrie]

BGR says:

"One of our Apple connects recently hit us up and broke down some important iPad figures. According to him, Apple stores received around 300-350 (on average) reservations for store pick-ups on day one, and now sit at around 700 reservations so far (72 hours in). This doesn’t count people who pre-ordered the device online, just those that wish to physically go into an Apple store and pick up their reserved unit on launch day.

The figures that we’ve seen floating around of about 150,000 pre-orders, we’re told, are extremely accurate thus far but obviously don’t include people’s store reservations. We have also been told Apple’s flagship 5th Avenue store in New York now holds around 1600 reservations for iPads, with 800 in the first day, and about 400 a day since.

Lastly, store reservations seem to be split around 50% for the 32GB unit, 30% for the 64GB unit and about 20% for the 16GB, which is what, “Apple was expecting.”"

 

[samcraig]

You are nothing but a troll. You will be the person that will bring up any problem the ipad has when it comes out. even if it is small and does not effect many you will be the one that makes a thread about it.

Actually the complete opposite. For one, I'm not buying one (at least not with the current OS/hardware.) If I were to get one - and you know my posts from the iPhone 3GS, you'd know that I'm the exact opposite.

I don't nitpick on screen color, bezel, and other countless issues other people bring up.

So enjoy that fantasy you've conjured up in your head. You've got the wrong guy.

 

[gwynne]

BGR says:

"One of our Apple connects recently hit us up and broke down some important iPad figures. According to him, Apple stores received around 300-350 (on average) reservations for store pick-ups on day one, and now sit at around 700 reservations so far (72 hours in). This doesn’t count people who pre-ordered the device online, just those that wish to physically go into an Apple store and pick up their reserved unit on launch day.

The figures that we’ve seen floating around of about 150,000 pre-orders, we’re told, are extremely accurate thus far but obviously don’t include people’s store reservations. We have also been told Apple’s flagship 5th Avenue store in New York now holds around 1600 reservations for iPads, with 800 in the first day, and about 400 a day since.

Lastly, store reservations seem to be split around 50% for the 32GB unit, 30% for the 64GB unit and about 20% for the 16GB, which is what, “Apple was expecting.”"

Wasn't there a number floating around for how many units the B&M stores would have? I want to say 1000? But that was probably based on the 'production delay' rumors and I'm not sure if those were convincingly disproved (I've only been hanging around here since the pre-orders started).

 

[wyneken]

I think that Steve Jobs has the left slanted liberal media in his back pocket and the Apple marketing machine is trying to create over demand for their soon to be artificial shortage.

Yes well, if the left slanted liberal media are involved, then there must be some kind of dark conspiracy afoot. Smart of you to detect it!

... spoke to someone who couldn't complete the transaction online over the weekend. He told me that apple is giving 12 months free financing on orders over $999.00(unconfirmed). If this is true Apple is trying to boost their profits buy underminding our economy.

Yes well, speaking to "someone" ("unconfirmed") is obviously proof that Satan is at work here. I'm not too sure what "underminding" means -- though I think we've had a couple of babysitters who did this -- but free financing is DEFINITELY a form of communism. You betcha!

I digress, I am waiting for CNET to do a review on the WiFi only version before I make the decision to purchase the 3G flavor

Whoa, my brother in Christ. Isn't CNET part of the left slanted liberal media? Until I get authorization from Fox News or the Christian Broadcasting Network, I am definitely NOT going to buy this Chinese-made baby-killer.

NO FLASH + NO JESUS = NO IPAD.

 

[gwynne]

Marry me.

 

[goobot]

im still waiting for some damn 3g info!!

 

[GeekLawyer]

Marry me.

And if not her, marry me!!

 

[rdowns]

Yes well, if the left slanted liberal media are involved, then there must be some kind of dark conspiracy afoot. Smart of you to detect it!



Yes well, speaking to "someone" ("unconfirmed") is obviously proof that Satan is at work here. I'm not too sure what "underminding" means -- though I think we've had a couple of babysitters who did this -- but free financing is DEFINITELY a form of communism. You betcha!



Whoa, my brother in Christ. Isn't CNET part of the left slanted liberal media? Until I get authorization from Fox News or the Christian Broadcasting Network, I am definitely NOT going to buy this Chinese-made baby-killer.

NO FLASH + NO JESUS = NO IPAD.

I want to have your babies.


http://upc.*************/uploads/macros/youRawesome.gif

 

[marksman]

No matter how you slice it, it seems the pre-order popularity of the device is showing strong signs to very strong sales. The idea that people would get this device and not use it, like they don't use there netbooks now, seems a little out of bounds because it takes the opposite tact as a netbook.

Just because netbooks have been a massive failure in regards to sales versus long-term usage, I think we can expect more long-term consideration for the iPad and mobile tablet platform going forward.

 

[rittchard]

I fully expect the iPad to sell hot at release and then slow dramatically as it moves to a secondary phase which will depend on:

- early adopter feedback
- early adopter promotion (or lack thereof)
- Apple ad campaign
- people on the fence trying them out at stores

The second phase is going to be the most interesting IMHO. If there are bugs and issues at release, it could go poorly. This device really needs early adopters to love it and tell all their friends, show it off, demo it at work, etc etc. If all goes well, Apple can probably then expect a steady stream of the fence-sitters being convinced to get off the fence. And then of course there should be another surge when OS 4 comes out and adds multi-tasking

 

[bluehaze013]

This is pretty much all guessing both the current numbers and the preorder numbers from launch day. I would take it all with a grain of salt and just wait for Apple to release the information themselves if you are truly interested in the numbers sold as it is highly unlikely any of these numbers at present are accurate.