iPad Sales

Shipping time for a new iPad is already set at 7-10 business days, but a shortage could be looming as parts manufacturers struggle to keep up with demand for orders from Apple. The latest company to signal it was having trouble is Korean company LG Display, who manufactures the 9.7 inch IPS LCD display found in the iPad.

LG reported it was currently running at full capacity, but would have to reduce production in August due to low demand for television screens. iPad screen production could be increased, however LG Display CEO Kwon Young-soo predicts that supplies will be tight until early 2011. Apple could be forced to find another supplier to augment production at LG is demand keeps up over the next several months.

AT&T Wireless released two months worth of iPad 3G data, stating that 400-500 thousand units were activated with data plans on its network during the period. 75-80 percent of these users chose the top-tier monthly data plan over the smaller plan with a low bandwidth limit. Initially, AT&T offered iPad owners the choice of an unlimited data plan or 200 MB.

AT&T has since moved to a tiered data plan on the iPad and iPhone 4. Users can now choose between 2 GB per month or 250 MB. Apple sold over three million iPads in several countries since the April launch. AT&T has an exclusive US contract to provide data plans for the iPad 3G, and offers customers monthly data plans that can be cancelled at any time.

Nine more countries are scheduled to get the iPad in July, but in the meantime Apple is selling an average of 26 iPads every 60 seconds. This unbelievable clip means the total units sold is three million in only 80 days.

For comparison, it took two years for Amazon's Kindle to sell that many units. For those who like statistics, Apple has sold three million iPads over 9 times faster than Amazon has sold equal numbers of the Kindle.

There's still an iPad shortage, and Apple has reportedly hired another manufacturer to help alleviate supply problems. The shortage has to do with iPad touch screens, which are of the 9.7 inch LED IPS variety. There's just not enough of them to go around.

Apple is experiencing similar problems with its high-resolution iPhone 4 screen and just can't overcome production bottlenecks to meet overwhelming demand. LG Display, a South Korean company, has already shipped close to one million iPad displays in May. This is in addition to over 700k units shipped in April and almost 800k units shipped in February and March.

The iPad is available in nine countries outside the US today. After postponed shipping due to short supplies and high US demand, pre-orders have arrived and Apple stores opened early to long lines of iPad buyers. Tokyo's Ginza Apple store had a line of 1,200 people waiting to get their hands on Apple's latest creation.

Apple sold over one million iPads in the first month of the US-only launch, and analysts expect that the company could sell up to eight million globally by the end of 2010. Almost 60 percent of Apple's revenues already come from sales outside the US.

Apple's iPad continues to make an impact on the mobile computing industry, and Retrevo's Pulse Study seeks to make sense of it all. The latest research showed some interesting breakdowns in consumer purchases and preferences when it comes to the lightest, cheapest computers available compared to the ultra-portable iPad.

So is the iPad killing netbooks? Not exactly. Is the iPad making an impact on netbook sales in the US? Absolutely. The graphic above shows that over three-quarters of respondents who are torn between a netbook and iPad are leaning towards the iPad.

Shares in Apple (AAPL) get rave reviews these days from Wall Street analysts like Kathryn Huberty at Morgan Stanley. Her forecast increased from $275 per share to $310, with a "bull case" scenario topping out at a whopping $400 per share in 2011. Apple could earn up to $20 per share thanks to strong iPad and iPhone sales worldwide.

Apple stock closed up almost two percent today at a price of $247 and continues to gain in after hours trading. With the third largest total market capitalization of US public companies, Apple is hot on the heels of computer giant Microsoft. Second place Microsoft is behind only Exxon Mobil Corporation, the public company with the largest market cap in the US.

Apple has reversed course on its payment rules for iPad purchases. Before today, customers were required to buy iPads with credit or bank debit cards. Modeled after the long-standing policy in place for iPhones, Apple Stores refused to accept cash from iPad buyers.

After a woman in the San Francisco area made the local news over the issue, Apple Senior Vice President Ron Johnson announced that cash would be accepted, effective immediately. Strangely, the reason given for the no-cash policy involved making sure the iPads were fairly distributed when demand was high.

Apple has changed iPad shipping dates again to account for unexpected demand and a shortage of iPad Wi-Fi + 3G models across the US. Apple retail stores are having trouble keeping the units in stock, and international customers who pre-order their iPads from now on can expect the device to ship on June 7. Orders that made it in earlier will still arrive on May 28.

iPad shipping for US orders has been increased on Apple's online store to 7-10 business days, where before it was 5-7 business days. Apple sold 300,000 iPads on the first day of launch, and international demand is said to be overwhelming. Some users outside the US have already received iPads from friends or on the grey market.

Apple sold its millionth iPad during Friday's launch of the iPad 3G. Sales from the Apple Store online and retail outlets reached the one million total in only 28 days. For comparison, the original iPhone took 74 days to reach this number of units sold.

Apple also announced that iPad users have already downloaded 12 million applications from the App Store and over 1.5 million ebooks from the iBookstore. Developers have launched 5,000 iPad-specific apps to date.