back to article Jobs: One million iPads sold

Apple announced on Monday that one million iPads were sold in the first four weeks of the "magical and revolutionary" device's availability in the US market. "One million iPads in 28 days - that's less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone," crowed Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a canned statement. …

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  1. morphoyle

    *sigh*

    Why does everyone think this is such a huge number? Look how many of each of the gaming consoles have been sold. 1 million really isn't that many when you consider that most consoles are basically locked down computers too.

    On another note, who knew there were so many people that are technologically stupid in the world? I knew there were a lot, but this is nuts!

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Ian Moffatt 1
      Troll

      Not bad though . . .

      . . . for a gadget that people like yourself turn out in droves for just to hate.

      No, I don't want one. When it's got to about v4 and I'm due a new laptop (I reckon on 3 to 4 years for this new MacBook), then I might go for one. It will (by then) suit my needs and will be a lot easier to haul about than a laptop and providing it syncs to my desktop (shouldn't be a problem with MobileMe, Evernote and Dropbox) then I'll have everything I need. YMMV.

      I might get one for my Mum. It runs Mac OS (she tried Windows and gave up). It does email, web browsing and she can look at pictures of her grandchildren, but the main thing is that it's light enough for her to carry it about. As long as we can get some sort of non slip case. She'll be happy with it. It does the job. What's the problem?

      1. Timothy
        Stop

        Better think again

        It runs the same O/S as the iPhone - NOT Mac OS X. IF it ran Max OS X, there would be a SURGE in demand and I would probably get one....

        1. Steve Todd
          Stop

          I hate to break this to you

          But iPhone OS is based on OS X. They both use the same core XNU kernel, they both are based on the NeXTSTEP GUI and you write code for both using the same XCode IDE. iPhone OS developers are expected to follow a more restricted set of guidelines and have fewer resources to work with, but it's effectively the same OS.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            @Steve Todd

            If this is so - can a iPhone app run on a Mac? I don't think so - so there must be SOME differences. (it would be nice if they could run on both.)

      2. Rattus Rattus

        If only it wasn't made by Apple

        I think the iPad is a great concept, it's just ruined by being so locked down. I'd like a nice tablet device like this if it didn't have such artificial limitations. Bring on an Android tablet with decent specs and I'll buy it. Just don't give me Steve Jobs' brushed aluminium shackles.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          asdf

          Locked down, but what can't it do (other than the Flash chestnut)? I don't think it's locked down (other than the video codec thing, but's more a sop to the film production companies). I think devices should be more task oriented and less, "it'll do everything" devices of yesterday. It can't do everything and do it well, so focus on people would actually use it for, and I think this is exactly perfect. I don't need it to toast bread and chill products in a box, it just needs to do the things I want to do in a lovely form factor.

          As for the Android tablet, if they come out with one, it'll be interesting to see how it compares with apps, battery life, usability and user experience, form factor, and ultimately then on price. Can't wait to see what they come out with - a bigger advertising platform with no battery life, yeah! ;-)

  2. DZ-Jay

    Re: *sigh*

    1 million may not be a huge number in the aggregate, compared to how many gaming consoles are out there; but it sure is impressive considering that the iPad is a first generation device and has only been out for about one month.

    By contrast, consider the PS3, which sold merely 1.7 million on its first full quarter:

    http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdataps3_sale_e.html

    and XBox 360, which sold about 1.5 million during its first year.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360#Sales

    -dZ.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @ DZ-Jay

      "By contrast, consider the PS3, which sold merely 1.7 million on its first full quarter:"

      That's because in it's first quarter the damn thing was bigger, more expensive and had less choice of games than a jet engine that runs on caviar.

      Both of PS3s early adopters only bought one to spite Microsoft and now they realise that they could have had a big black dildo for £12, and it would have accomplished much the same task. (i.e. sitting around their house making them look stupid)

  3. joejack
    Thumb Up

    Great news!

    Thanks, Apple, for validating that there's a market for this type of thing! Now we'll start to see some android tablets with much better specs (smaller but higher res screen, removable memory/battery, USB, a modern OS). I'm actually curious about what HP will come up with, too, for the same reason. Not enough dev support behind WebOS, but they're (also) great to borrow ideas from.

    Hey, maybe now Google will finally get around to finishing off their Bluetooth stack to include keyboard support so it can be backported to the phones (as Apple did for the iPad release).

    One thing Apple really did get right, though, is the deals with and integrations to content providers. Sure, you can find the same stuff for other platforms if you poke around, but including it into the base OS makes finding new content more geezer friendly. (And no doubt Apple gets a %age).

  4. Alan Denman

    Also great for Hemorrhoids.

    The small size must certainly help when the verbals start to come fast from the rear.

    One would expect a decent size screen would be far better for those with vision problems.

    I'll eat tripe if this is not yet another case of it.

    Last time I looked most of those million were on ebay.

    US citizens are currently lucky. In that if they find they bought into tripe, flogging it to mugs overseas gets a full refund.

  5. Peter D'Hoye
    Thumb Up

    Not surprised

    The success of the iphone already showed there's more than a million iDiots in the world. There are in fact many more, so things are looking bright for Jobs...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Can't think of one

      Resort to ad hominems when you have no cogent argument or solid position.

      Epic fail.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Proves one thing

    lost of idiots with more money than sense.

  7. MrcX
    IT Angle

    *sigh...#2*

    this is such a drag, having to read these immature comments over and over again, Rick. Can't you play another tune that would maybe interest people? What's the use, we all know the Reg holds a grudge against Apple, just try to be a bit more inventive in your stories please.

    thanks.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    1 millions iPads sold

    "Why does everyone think this is such a huge number? "

    It's a huge number for a tablet.

    Compare with the JooJoo, which sold, er, 64 units. I bet Jobs is shitting himself over that 0.00064% market share.

    Better luck next time boys.

  9. Robert E A Harvey

    It's true then/

    There IS one born every minute.

    1. Stuart Halliday
      Happy

      One born every minute

      Actually one is born every 4 seconds.....

    2. Robert E A Harvey

      How very odd

      4 upvotes, 4 downvotes? Will this lead to a sort of matter-antimatter anihilation, and will that power the reg. servers for a million years?

      It's good to be even handed. Perhaps I should become a LIberal Democrat.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    'Money Exceeds Sense'

    'Dog Bites Meal'. Whatever.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    So if I become a pensioner,

    can I get one of these iPlaid thingies for free? Perhaps on prescription 'cos of my poor aged eyes and my iPlod Touch screen seems to be shrinking. Oh yes, Flash 10.1 installed too, please. Ta.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    Waa waa waa

    All complains sound a lot like "I hate it. Hate it! Why oh why do they like it when I hate it"?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    No Worries

    The number of morons and apple fan bois IS limited so the demand will drop off very soon.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Funny...

      that's *exactly* what was said about the iPhone...

  14. Daniel B.
    Boffin

    Hm...

    Am I the only one seeing Jobs sitting in Dr. Evil's chair, saying...

    ONE MILLION IPADS!!!

    Meh. There are other tablets out there, though I'd wonder how they are doing. I remember seeing one in 2005; actually a small laptop but with a 180° rotating screen, so you could twist the thing and have only the screen showing. Oh, it also had handwriting recognition...

    1. Robert E A Harvey
      Boffin

      No

      "Jobs sitting in Dr. Evil's chair, saying"

      Saying "There are one million. Now turn on the embeded Thought Wave Modulators. One Million Minions are MINE to command. Ha Ha Ha "

  15. Watashi

    Sales figures

    The Wii sold over 1 million units in its first week.

  16. Stuart Halliday
    Megaphone

    Dawn?

    IT People still don't get it do they?

    The type of person who wants a iPad is those who want a non-techie piece of kit as possible.

    They don't want to create, they want to consume.

    They want to sit on their sofa and surf the web, send the odd half-dozen lines of email and show off their pictures. That is what the vast Joe-Public wants.

    They don't want a device they have to defragment, fix registry errors, perform CHKDSK checks or update this, update that every month just in case they damn kit is going faulty or gets a virus.

    I think Apple may be the first piece of kit to with the iPad show the way.

    .

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      @Stuart Halliday

      If thats all it does, then why is it so bloody expensive?

      I think that's why so many people believe only fools buy it.

      Not because it's "non-techie" but because they're stupid to pay so much for so little.

      Nope, no iPad in my coat, just a nice full wallet.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        @ Marcus Dubious: What do you mean?

        "if that's all it does "? That is the great, unachieved aim of all computing attained by almost none. If it was so easy, do n't you think all Linux forms, including Android, all Windows releases, VMS, Profs or whatever would have done this years ago? If it is so easy, how can so many readers of this site earn their living or spend so much of their lives repairing kit, supporting users, writing software ...?

        Simplicity and elegance of form and function is immensely difficult to create, just look at the ugliness of the cities and technology around you. That's why it's expensive, in time, ability and money.

        You are a twit. By the way, we are an aging population, even you. That means, no matter how technically wonderful you are, eventually you will want something easy to use even when sight is failing (by 40 years old you need twice as much light as at 20 years old I believe), fingers are stiffening, your back hurts, walking is a pain and you are bored to tears with fighting the wretched gadget just to read email or see your photos or look up the train times. You may even not want to spend all your spare time indoors, fiddling with badly designed electronics and interfaces, after a day at work doing something similar.

        "if that's all it does"! Get with it.

      2. Sean O'Connor 1
        Happy

        Expensive

        I think Apple can charge so much cos they seem to be the first company to realise that 99% of the population are not nerds like us who hang out on forums like these. It's about time computers got as simple to use as a toaster, not more complicated than mission control.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Thumb Down

        If that's all it does?

        It does quite a lot, you make it sound like it does nothing.

        BTW, the original iPod when released was ~$400 (or more). Perhaps your statement would make more sense applied to that device, not this one?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    crashing bores

    I do love the snide remarks here, they remind me why your average IT worker with his crap windoze system or very very clever but barely functional linux box are such crashing bores.

    1. BinaryDad

      spot on

      I think it also explains why the average IT person will spend most of their career doing what is nothing more than a techie Janitor's job. They just lack the vision to see outside of their own expectations and can't see that 99.99% of the world, don't have the same needs and desires that they do.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @ the Apple fanboys above.

        Deliberately missing my point to suck up to Apple isn't going to impress me.

        The iPad is WAY overpriced; you can get a laptop for less money.

        If it was £200 then I wouldn't say anything as that’s a fair price for what it does.

        Pretending I don't see that there is a market for dumbed down faddy electronics isn't going to wash either.

        No amount of common sense will stop some people throwing away hundreds of pounds on a logo. That's all they'll be doing by buying this overpriced toy.

        1. Player_16
          Megaphone

          The Apple fanboy below.

          Let's take each line apart:

          'Deliberately missing my point...' Not deliberately, just informing you about your blinkers.

          '...WAY overpriced; you can get a laptop for less...' And why should one buy a vanilla laptop that was NOT designed but slapped together in less than a minute using child labour and sold on the cheap, then will have to baby it to 'just work'? I have a life that says: 'Pick up iPad; push button/slider; tap stock (or what eva app); done'... and have a response that's in my face in around 10 seconds: magic.

          'If it was £200...' I see you'll be trolling eBay for a 2nd-hand one; good luck with that.

          'Pretending I don't see that there is a market...' By your previous post, we're just informing you about the popularity of the iPad... and your blinkers.

          'No amount of common sense will stop some people throwing away hundreds of pounds on a logo. That's all they'll be doing by buying this overpriced toy.' Well now that you're done, please let the person behind you have a go at the library computer.

  18. Gary F 1

    Bitter, Bitter Little boys

    Amusing to read all the bitterness here.

    Oh dear, despite the Reg nerdcores usual predictions of doom for Apple hardware, the iPad is a success.

    Just like all the wise men here predicting the failure of the iPhone, you are so very wrong again.

    And also, as I predicted here in a previous post, the "oh, so superior" saviour pads are once more proven to be vapourware - sad, bitter attempts to steal the limelight from Apple.

    The courier mock up video was so fake, but you all so desperately wanted to believe it would work. I said at the time that there was no way a windows product would work that smoothly and look that good. Guess who was right?

    And the "slates" that Ballmer announced - dead too. (how embarrassing for him and MS).

    Do you see the difference here? Apple announce products, and deliver them, and they work.

    These aren't mock-ups, prototypes or fantasy island devices. They are out there now.

    Meanwhile, you all wait for your cheap copies from Acer, Dell and whoever and hope that they might come close to the ease of use, stability and functionality (and pray that they aren't too ugly in comparison).

    Hilarious how you all so desperately hate the iPhone and iPad but can't seem to stop reading and commenting on articles about them.

    Your penis envy is so obvious, it is kinda sad.

    (On a side note, also amusing is the whole "Slate" thing. When the rumours went around that Apples new device was going to be called iSlate, suddenly everyone was talking about "slate" this and "slate" that (even Ballmer).

    Now it's back to "Pads" again. You know you are on top when even the rumoured name for your device changes the game).

  19. Stuart Duel
    Flame

    Why the Apple hatred?

    I don't understand why so many people, without the faintest clue about what they are banging on about, hate Apple and their products. You come out with the dumbest, most childish comments and really, you're just making yourself look silly.

    If you'd just put your blind ignorance aside for a moment and experience something different, in this case Apple products, I'm pretty sure you'd get it.

  20. Phormic

    I'm very, very clever!

    Speaking as an IT professional, one who is very CLEVER with computers and has heard of Linux distros NOBODY else has heard of (and written them), can I just write off these one million customers as "stupid" and "fanbois" because obviously people who want well designed and easy to use products are DUMB. It's obvious! Spending hours getting barely functional software operating on barely functional netbooks is what everybody should be doing. Well, people intelligent enough to do so anyway (like me).

    EXPERTS like myself, pride ourselves in wrestling with technology and mastering it in a mighty battle of will. Technology is hard and therefore people like myself are indispensable. Technology made simple, personable, approachable and available to all people (even stupid ones) is offensive and a possible threat to my livelihood.

    So let me finish with a few more elitist "fanbois", "one born every minute" and "evil locked down technology" comments while I sit back and polish my ivory tower. Thank you.

    1. Rattus Rattus

      Polishing your ivory tower

      You wanna be careful doing that, I hear you can go blind.

  21. gimbal
    IT Angle

    Demand exceeds reason, too

    So what?

    A lot of people, apparently, are addicted to Apple-ness. I wonder what the withdrawl symptoms would look like?

  22. Urs Keller

    1 million people have voted with their wallet, ...

    ... and many more will do also.

    Like it or not, if someone is willing to plunk down his or her hard-earned cash, the he or she must see value in what they are buying. Only the those peoples values are not the ones that the Apple-haters praise ...

    LMAO. Keep waiting for the "iPad-Killer", folks! (Still waiting for the iPod-killer, the iPhone-killer ...)

  23. A 31
    Alien

    The washing machine theory

    There is hatred towards Apple because, for one, Jobs is not likeable (nor is Billy), they make expensive and flashy product. And for the nerds , you can't play beyond the purpose of the machine much.

    Saying that, when you buy a washing machine, you don't try to tweak it's settings to get better performance, or install the "dish washer" application.

    You get the same remarks if you drive an expensive car, that doesn't go 200 mph.

    Another thing that fuels the hate, is that people owning such products can at times be condescending (some of them do actually sacrifice their pensions on such things you know, so they can look down on people, but not on a mirror of course :) )

    Back to Apple though ... 1M ... is a good thing, like it was said above, means the tablet market is well on its way !! it also means that other manufacturers WILL follow suit, and give us consumers more choices (for those who think Apples are evil ... instead of the snake).

  24. Steve ten Have
    Paris Hilton

    They must be reaching moron saturation by now...

    Early adopters with more money than sense? Leaves to be seen...

  25. Nic 3
    Grenade

    Formula for Apple Envy

    1) Dismiss all new Apple products as evil AND/OR over-priced AND/OR lacking functionality

    2) Suggest Steve Jobs is the Devil Incarnate

    3) State unequivocally that product X will fail

    4) Grunt and moan about media hype generated by the Apple Marketing team (whose job it is to create marketing hype)

    5) When sales figures show product X is doing well claim this is only fanbois and the rest of the world has sense.

    6) When sales figures make is clear the rest of the world is buying product X, claim the world is full of idiots.

    7) (My favourite) - Proclaim your business acumen and say something like "When will Steve Jobs learn x about y" yada yada yada. Because he clearly has no clue what he is doing and needs to be put right by your genius.

    Rinse, repeat...

    Oh and the golden rule. Make sure you always, and I mean ALWAYS make comments on articles written about product x. Even though you have no interest in product x,

    (except you do, you really really do but you could never admit it)

    Keep it in the closet boys. ;-)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Don't forget

      #6 - could be "they're all for sale on eBay" (like that discredits the number of units sold)

      Or another favourite - at least 50,000 - 100,000 were sold to developers. I still don't get those arguments - they were still sold, but I guess developers don't use it for anything other than testing their (50-100K) apps they're working on?

      It's sad that people can't just be happy that others have bought a product and are enjoying it, they have to run up to those people and try and steal their joy and happiness. What this means is that thhey are not happy that others are happy and must take their happiness away. What a world we live in.

  26. paul 97
    IT Angle

    free advertising

    Given the amount of 'Free' advertising by the brain washed press - its not surprising its sold 1m.

    Steve Jobs could be president of USA without even breaking a sweat - hes that much of a star in the papers.

    1. Robert E A Harvey

      Aye

      The trick is to see how many people buy two

  27. SlabMan

    Decline and fall

    @Alan Denman - Most of the iPads are on eBay? Quick search on eBay for 'iPad' returned 28,316 hits - and that includes accessories. Let's be generous and say 50% of the hits are actually iPads - 14,000 is not most of a million.

    It's understandable why the Reg audience dislikes the iPad - most of us probably make our living from IT. Consumer-friendly computers mean less jobs and a loss of status for a large segment of the IT crowd.

    A survey on (I think) Silicon.com found an average £10k differential in favour of those expert in IT outsourcing over those with desktop support expertise. Devices like the iPad will lower the status of desktop support to that of telephone sanitiser.

    1. Ian Moffatt 1
      Joke

      B'Arking up the wrong tree?

      'Devices like the iPad will lower the status of desktop support to that of telephone sanitiser.'

      Plenty of room on C deck

      I'll get me towel

  28. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    @SlabMan

    It's not about that because it's highly doubtful that the business use of an iPad will go beyond hipster businesses with Aeron chairs flushing VC money down the drain.

    I'm happy when systems get more user friendly. I develop my own apps with the user in mind at all times. I'm glad not to get calls from relatives when their PC misbehaves or confuses them.

    What I think is terrible is that people are going to buy an iPad having been promised the earth and find that they've wasted money because it's so deliberately crippled. And they'll probably only realise what a stinker they've been sold after it's outside of Apple's return period when the grandchildren try to go to the Disney site or when they try to book a ticket reservation or go out to use the 3G and find that the video has been deliberately crippled to 64kbps.

    This isn't a "where's my command line" complaint. Being able to print things out or play some online games or copy some photos from a USB stick are things that my elderly aunt does.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Egad

    Slightly off topic but one of the main reasons for Apple bashing is blindingly obvious

    If we all used easy to use / install and maintain software, 3/4 of the "Tech Janitors" here (Love that expression) would be out of a job.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    More money than sense, eh?

    Poor people have more sense than money and the rich have more money than sense. They also have more sense than the poor, that's why they're rich, I'm afraid.

  31. Watashi

    Apple logo

    If you own a Symbian smartphone, you don't need an iPad with 3G because you can tether the Nokai and the iPad together through the Wi-Fi connection. You can then surf the web using 3.5G, which is faster than the 3G on the iPad, and you only need one mobile data contract.

    Q: What kind of company provides lower comaptibility between its own products than between its products and its biggest mobile phone competitor?

    A: A company whose products do NOT sell on the basis of functionality or value for money.

    It's time we dispensed with the myth - most people who now buy Apple products buy them because of the Apple logo, not because of the hardware beneath the logo. All Apple need to is make sure their new gadget has a sufficient Wow! factor to "justify" its high cost and it will sell, even if it's pointless and cr*p.

    The argument of "it's a better product" no longer matches the evidence. Apple PCs are not significantly faster (for the vast majority of daily tasks) or more reliable than Windows 7 PCs half the cost - I don't know a single long-term Mac user who's never had to take a Mac back to the store. iPhones do not have greater functionality than Nokias, Blackberries or HTCs. There are plenty of things that you can't do on an iPhone that you can do on other phones. iPods are less user-friendly and poorer quality than several of their competitors, and the benefits of an iPad over a netbook are extremely limited. Also, first releases of Apple products ALWAYS have common hardware issues.

    Apple sold out years ago. Deal with it, fanbois!

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