Apple's iPad 2 sold at least 500,000 units at launch, according to Piper Jaffray, which counted long lines and unit sell-outs in New York City and Minnesota.
Apple may have sold as much as 500,000 iPad 2 devices on
its first day of sales March 11, or 200,000 more than the first iPad sold in
its first weekend of sales last April, according to an industry analyst.
Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, who
predicted before the iPad 2 went on sale that he expected the device to sell
more than the first iPad, said his estimation of 400,000 to 500,000 iPad 2s
sold only covers the launch day.
That's because Apple stores and retailers such as Target
and Best Buy he spoke to were out of the popular tablet computer, which is thinner, lighter and faster than its
predecessor, by the end of the day and did not receive more shipments over the
weekend.
Piper Jaffray counted 1,190 people in line at Apple's 5th
Ave. store at 5 p.m. on Friday, compared to 730 people in line for the first
iPad when it launched at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 3, 2010.
The opening weekend of iPad 2 sales was a resounding
success, forcing Munster to acknowledge he earlier underestimated iPad 2
demand.
"Strong demand in stores and online suggests that
our estimate of 5.5 million iPads in the March quarter is likely
conservative," said Munster, whose research team spoke with 236 iPad 2
buyers March 11 in New York City and Minneapolis.
Piper Jaffray's Munster wasn't the only analyst team to
haunt Apple and Best Buy stores in America for the iPad 2 landing.
Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdry checked
out four Apple stores and three Best Buy locations and estimated Apple sold three
times more iPad 2 tablets in the first two days of the launch versus the first
iPad.
Each Best Buy sold its 40 iPad 2 units in 4 minutes, and
took a $100 deposit per device for the next shipments this week.
Customer lines to purchase the new iPad 2 were more than
three times long versus lines for the first iPad April 3, 2010. Moreover,
almost half of the people purchased two iPad 2s.
Meanwhile, Munster discovered that 70 percent of iPad 2
buyers were new to the iPad, an indication that Apple is expanding its base of
iPad users.
This should bolster Apple's early lead in the nascent
tablet market, which Forrester Research said was 90 percent through 2010 and
should end 2011 at 80 percent, owing to Apple's strong brand and channel
affinities.
The iPad 2's closest competition in terms of features,
form and performance is
the Motorola Xoom Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" tablet, which is reportedly
suffering weak sell-through, likely due to its $799 cost off contract, $599 tag
with Verizon Wireless contract.
HP's TouchPad and
RIM's PlayBook are on the way this spring, while several more Honeycomb
tablets, including the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, LG Optimus and others are also
in the tablet pipeline.
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