Apple sells a million iPad 2 tablet computers
- iPad 2 sells three times the amount of its predecessor
Apple sold close to a million iPad 2 tablet computers in the U.S. alone over the weekend - significantly more than the first iPad.
People across America queued for hours on Friday to become one of the first to buy the must-have gadget.
The iPad 2, which will be released in Britain on 25 March, sold out in a matter of minutes in some shops.
Phenomenon: Apple employees welcome the first group of customers intent on buying an iPad 2 at the company's midtown New York store on Friday. Analysts think just under a million of the tablets were sold over the weekend
A spokesman for electronics giant Best Buy said some of its outlets ran out of the tablet and its accessories within just ten minutes.
Industry experts had projected sales of 350,000 to 400,000 iPad 2s in its first weekend on release.
But it seems their predictions were way too low and the iPad 2 sold three times the amount of its predecessor last April.
iPAD 2 FEATURES
Display: 9.7inch 1024 x 768 LCD
Weight: 1.3lb
Operating System: iOS 4.3
Browser: Safari
Flash support: No
Ebooks: Yes
Apps: Apple App Store
Multitasking: Yes
Camera: 2 MP front, 8 MP back
Processor: 1.2GHz Apple A5
Storage: 16, 32, 64GB
RAM: 512MB
Wireless: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Battery life: 10 hours
Price: $499 to $829 (in the UK, £400 to £700)
'We would not be surprised to see Apple sell closer to one million iPad2s in the opening weekend,' Wedbush Securities analyst Scott Sutherland said yesterday.
Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry estimated that Apple may have sold three times more iPad 2s in the first two days compared to the previous version.
Mr Chowdhry also issued a profile of those buying the iPad 2. He said 60 per cent are existing iPad owners, while about 40 per cent are first-time iPad buyers.
Every single person to have bought an iPad 2 over the weekend will already own at least one Apple product, Mr Chowdhry said.
People prefer AT&T's iPad 2 over Verizon's because AT&T has better customer service, Mr Chowdhry added.
The first person to buy the tablet in New York was a Frenchman called Frederick who travelled to the U.S. solely to pick up an iPad 2.
College student Amanda Foote, meanwhile, was the first to turn up at Apple's flagship store in midtown Manhattan, arriving at 5pm on Wednesday.
She endured severe rain and little sleep but on Friday she sold her spot for $900 (£560), that's a $400 (£250) profit if you were buying the basic $499 (£310) model.
Phenomenon: The iPad 2 sold three times the amount of its predecessor last April
When the original version of the iPad went on sale in April, Apple said it sold more than 300,000 in the first day.
It ended up selling more than 15 million in the first nine months, including 7.3 million to Christmas shoppers in the October-December quarter.
After its U.S. launch on Friday, the iPad 2 goes on sale March 25 in 26 other countries, including Mexico, New Zealand and several European countries.
To show the importance of the iPad to Apple, company CEO Steve Jobs emerged from medical leave earlier this month to unveil the new version.
Jobs, 56, announced in January that he would take a third leave of absence to focus on his health. In the last decade, he has survived a rare but curable form of pancreatic cancer and undergone a liver transplant.
Shares of Apple closed on Friday at 1.53 per cent up at $351.99.
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