back to article Apple flogs 3m iPads in 3 months

Apple has shifted three million iPads in 80 days - having sold its three millionth device on Monday. Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, gushed: “We’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more people around the world, including those in nine more countries next month.” The "magical product" goes on sale in …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Is this something for mankind to be proud of?

    I mean it higlights that there are 3m braindead iTards out there, that will buy anything Apple tell them, even if they don't know what they are spending £500 actually on, or what it will and won't do for them...

    "I bought it because I read in the Daily Mail that I had to have one"...

    1. ColonelClaw
      Stop

      High blood pressure much?

      Will you still be spouting this when they've sold 30 million? Or maybe you'll have died of a stress-induced heart attack?

    2. LuMan
      Go

      @AC 12:19

      "it higlights that there are 3m braindead iTards out there"

      OR it may be that (shock) there are 3m people out there who know something you don't?

      1. RichyS
        Thumb Up

        @LuMan

        I suspect there are rather more than 3m people out there who know more than AC.

        Probably around 6bn. And I haven't started counting other animals yet. Or plants.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Thats impressive

    Although im no fanboy, hats off to St. Jobs for pulling this one off!

    Surely, they must be doing something right

    Maybe its a tat 3 months down the line when the novelty wears off, still they are impressive sales figures by any standard for a new product launch.

    No one an deny that he has raised the bar in terms of product offerings and customer experience of usability of the device. When will Nokias, Sony Ericssons, Dell et all will learn ?

    SO heres one for Steve and his gang, although England will still be pathetic this afternoon.

    Credit where credit's due.

  3. ShaggyDoggy

    Last week

    ... it was 2 million, this week 3 million, next week ....?

    And all this happening while Jobs said there was a shortage.

    makes you wonder

  4. richard 69
    Happy

    hmmm.. magical....

    poor steve, i do love apple and their stuff but 'magical'?

    no flash....'magical'?

    no camera...'magical'?

    paul daniels in 1982...'magical'!

    1. gabor1
      Flame

      it doesn't have wheels either

      (but if it did, I'm sure Apple would file a patent for them). But seriously, I can't understand all the people who are lamenting the lack of Flash. The lack of Flash keeps it out of the hands of the rest of my family, so I can use it for what it was bought for: web browsing, emailing, document editing, note taking, data projecting and map viewing.

      Stop whining about something you self confessedly don't understand.

      1. richard 69

        eh?

        "you self confessedly don't understand"

        explain where i said that? i understand the device perfectly well and apples products after my 5th mac and 4th ipod.

        i still believe it needs flash on it for a year or so to appeal to jo public. a lot of web browsing still uses flash - i don't like it myself but the public don't know the difference...

        1. Chad H.

          So

          So if the iPad needs flash to appeal to Joe Public... Why has it sold so many?

          (answer: it doesnt).

    2. Chad H.
      Stop

      No flash

      Oh no, the umpteen million pages with those horrible flash rollover things aren't going to display the ad. The horror, pages might actually display faster and without crashing. Someone pass a law forcing apple to put those ads back.

      Seriously, turn off flash, you'll be surprised how little you miss it and enjoy the web more.

  5. envmod

    oh fucking shut up

    shut the fuck up about lack of cameras, USB etc etc etc - it's starting to get boring as fuck. people like them and are buying lots of them for whatever reasons. get over it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Don't spit your dummy

      there's an App for that

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Non-techie fanboi wife speaks out

    My wife commented thusly:

    "Yeh - three million disenfranchised people who can't get access to flash supported sites - grumble grumble"

    And she's not even technical :)

    1. Gareth Gouldstone
      Stop

      Non-technical Flash

      How many genuine non-techies have even heard of flash never mind understand the consequences of the lack of it?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Thumb Up

        @Gareth

        Yes, good point. The ones that can't play Farmville will notice, but there's an app coming and others are quickly building their sites to be non-Flash, so soon it will be no one will be able to notice no Flash on these devices, not even the techy crowd, and this war will be over, and people will have to find some other reason to bash Apple and not buy their devices.

  7. Rogerborg

    When they release a proper version, what's that going to be?

    Super-magical? Hyper-magical? SHATNER-magical?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    Quite Impressive ... Yes; Magical ... No

    Even PC World are advertising this as a magical device. I can fully understand that PC world employees are not highly trained in technological matters, but errrr... it's not magical its mediocre technology all combined together at best. I can see it now...

    "Wow! When you touch the screen the device responds ... no other explanation it must be magic!"

    - what a step backwards toward the dark ages

    1. Chad H.

      But

      But PC world would describe an abacus as magic!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Joke

        Abacus

        ...and it would still be the crappest Abacus you've every bought.

        It'll also be packed in that impenetrable plastic that needs a angle-grinder to saw into, and a firemans hydraulic ram to prise apart. And you'll still sever 2 arteries on the resulting sharp edges. And you'll be so traumatised by the opening process, you'll even be afraid to recyle thepackaging in case it actually does come back out as a renewed version of itself, bent on revenge.

  9. strangefish

    I congratulate them on their sales

    but if I hear the phrase "magical device" one more time I may gag. Please somebody sue them under the trade descriptions act...the case has been opened now and after close examination there were found to be absolutely no demons, elves, fairies, brownies or any other kind of magical creature powering it. Unless they have somehow managed to incorporate recycled Unicorn Spam into the plastic? It's not magic or magical, it's just another device and not a particularly advanced one either so fuck off now for fuck's sake.

    I need a "scream" icon.

  10. Jim Coleman
    FAIL

    Well...

    I just had a look at a colleague's iPad and when I asked if it could stream music from my PC, or open a Word or Excel file from the document share on that same PC, or if I could plug my USB memory key into it and copy the MPEG2 video files from my PS3's PlayTV library onto it for viewing on the train, he started saying "Nope" a lot so I gave up and didn't bother asking him if it could run Virtual DJ. (These were all my top usage scenarios).

    I did question him on what he used it for, and he said primarily for watching videos he'd ripped from DVDs rented from Lovefilm, on the train. I asked him how he propped the thing up at the correct viewing angle and he said he has to hold it all the time.

    Nah, I think I'll stick with my laptop, at least until the Toshiba W100 comes out.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      He's obviously not been to the app store recently...

      Stream video: Air Video

      Word or excel: plenty office-type apps will do that; Office2 HD for one. Throw in idisk sync-ing too.

      Plug in USB stick: See Apple's (outrageously overpriced & not included in the box) add-on. There's one for SD cards too.

      From the same share: Air Sharing HD

      Video from PS3: Slap a PnP server on PS3 (don't ask me how), then see Air Video's add to itunes function. No USB required.

      VirtualDJ: never heard of it, but I'll bet "there's an app for that". Or 20.

      Don't want to hold it all the time? Use a cover; the Apple official one lets you set convenient viewing or typing angles. Bet there will be half a dozen wanna-be's along in the next few months if that's not for you.

      Point is...you can do all of what you wanted; I had very similar requirements, and it took me all of 2hrs to get it all running. Then I browsed around the store and found a load more stuff I hadn't even thought of - VNC clients, wordpress, rowmote etc. I've not used my laptop in weeks.

      Perhaps you should choose more irrational reasons not to own one? Plenty of Apple haters here will provide you with a reason or two. Plenty of Bois will give you equally irrational reasons to get one too, I guess.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      Jim Coleman

      Were you convincing yourself this device is crap, or trying to convince your friend what an idiot he was by purchasing a device with no obvious purpose?

  11. uhuznaa

    "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced"

    In this sense this thing is a bit magical. Compared to most other tablets the iPad really makes the technology behind it totally vanish when you use it. I don't have one and I don't need one, but I've used one and I think that Jobs is totally on track here. With all other tablets you still have the (correct) feeling that you're issuing gesture commands on a touch surface which get translated to software commands through 15 layers of API until finally the software does something which changes the screen beneath the touch surface. With the iPad it feels as if you were moving real things around and press real buttons. And there is hardly any UI to the actual OS running the thing (just the home screen and the settings app), which is a good thing for most users. The whole thing is basically just a slate that totally turns into whatever an apps makes it into.

    Surely this is fake magic but it's really well done fake magic and there is no other magic than fake magic anyway. So stop whining please, yes? For most people this is exactly the way they like their technology.

  12. Dru Richman

    More to Come

    Talk to any business - 1 million sales of ANYTHING in a scant 28 days is fantastic. 3 million sales in 89 days with a 35% profit margin is something that any other manufacturers would sell the family jewels for (and as an Apple stockholder, I'm loving). 3 million sales in 89 days is approximately 12 million sales per year, and that's just U.S. sales.

    Find me one, just one, other tablet (slate) computer with those numbers and I'll buy it. Heck, I'll buy one for you, too.

    In the meantime, all of you who are laughing at the millions of satisfied iPad buyers for being sheep, or Mactards, or whatever just remember the words of the song:

    "They all laughed at Christopher Columbus,

    When he said the world was round

    They all laughed when Edison recorded sound,

    They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother

    When they said that man could fly

    They told Marconi

    Wireless was a phony

    It's the same old cry

    They all laughed at Rockefeller Center

    Now they're fighting to get in

    They all laughed at Whitney and his cotton gin

    They all laughed Fulton and his steamboat

    Hershey and his chocolate bar

    Ford and his Lizzie

    Kept the laughers busy

    That's how people are

    For ho, ho, ho!

    Who's got the last laugh?

    Hee, hee, hee!

    Let's at the past laugh

    Ha, ha, ha!

    Who's got the last laugh now?"

  13. Mikel
    Pint

    Few enterprise sales yet, few schools

    There's a whole bunch of large-lot business that Apple hasn't even started to get yet. This may turn into the OLPC for the first world, an essential business tool. I think it's probably going to be the must-have back-to-school item for middle school and up.

    I've tried it. It's pretty slick. Also, it draws an envious crowd everywhere you go - which is nice.

  14. Jim Coleman
    FAIL

    Oh man...

    I love the way iPad apologists have come up with all these hardware and software workarounds for all the stuff I mentioned the iPad doesn't do out of the box.

    Whereas on my laptop...."It Just Works".

    Regarding the official Apple cover, well my colleague has one and admits it doesn't hold the iPad at the right angle for viewing video but he gets a great reflection of the ceiling lights though.

    Honestly guys, the notion of having to buy, and cart around, and add-on just to use USB sticks and SD cards is laughable. My PS3, my TV, my PC, my laptop...all of these have card readers built in.

    And all these apps you have to buy to emulate the capabilities of a laptop to use SMB shares over Wi-Fi....I mean COME ON!!!!

    The only thing "Magical" the iPad does is relieve you guys of your sense and the contents of your wallets. The fact that you're happy with that is worrying.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      @Jim Coalman

      Why such a strong need to defend yourself? It's not for you, so what? If form factor isn't something that strikes your fancy, then stop worrying that it's not for you and stop defending your choice.

      You know what they say about people who deny too strongly? You are beginning to sound like someone who wants it so badly but has to keep convincing themselves of the opposite. We don't really care about your internal conflict. If you don't want one, don't buy one, but don't feel superior to those who do want one (or already have one).

      1. Jim Coleman
        Flame

        Eh?

        Not defending myself, just answering another poster's points. As a techie, I like what the iPad is trying to achieve, but it frustrates me that Apple don't, won't or can't go the last mile to make it functional enough for me to actually consider purchasing one.

        I would love to be able to pull an iPad out of its box, charge it up, connect it to my home Wi-Fi network and show my friends the Wedding photos I have stored on my PC's SMB share. Without having to trawl through 225,000 apps to find one that enables me to do it. iPad is touted as a media consumption device and yet it lacks even this most basic ability.

        As I understand it, I would have to go upstairs to my study, connect the iPad to my PC, download and install iTunes, allow it time to build a library of my pics, transfer the pics to the iPad (thus taking up valuable space on the device), unplug the iPad, go back downstairs and wonder why my guests have left already.

        That's the iPad magic - making my guests disappear without trace.

        SMB support out of the box. How hard can it be?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Thumb Down

          @ Jim

          So your laptop "just works" out the box does it? So you don't have to:

          - charge the battery

          - activate windows

          - remove all the junk apps and services

          - import all your email accounts, favourites, calendars, docs etc (hint: have a look at mobileme)

          - install the 36 security updates for windows, including 15 millions restarts

          - install an AV tool, update it, and run a full scan

          - enable firewall, and spec the rules

          - defrag the disk which you *know* it will need straight after an OS install

          wow...you can browse your photo's via SMB...woopie. I can achieve the same effect for my photo's with Apple's Gallery app (my photo's are on mobileme) in 3 minutes flat. 6 mins if you include ipad activation via itunes. And I get the added benefit of showing off the novelty touch interface which is amusing for all of 2 minutes to non-techs. If you can do all the above then get your photos quicker than that, then kudos to you.

          Besides...which serious techy has friends (and therefore guests) anyway? And wouldn't you stream the pics via a media server to your tellie, given the social setting and the amount of people wanting to view them? And why on earth are you trying to unpacking and activate an ipad in the middle of a social setting? You certainly wouldn't do it with your laptop (for the setup reasons above), so why is the ipad any different?

          Please...if the ipad is not for you, then so be it, as the above AC alluded too. It's *not* the "perfect device". Just don't assume your process is better until you've actually tried "the dark side" first. Perhaps you should dump the superiority complex, and perhaps conceed that the ipad may actually be better at some things/situations/tasks than a laptop is? There's not many, but it's not a clean sweep for the laptop that you allude to.

          3 million user so far obviously think it's better at something, enough to make it worth buying even at the crazy price Apple charges.

          And to think I'm actually defending the ipad. I feel dirty.

        2. bygjohn

          I think you've missed the point slightly

          It's not aimed at the kind of people that have SMB shares set up on their network. Most punters wouldn't know what an SMB share is, or care: they just know they can plug the iPad into their Mac and their iPhoto library gets transferred to it, or whatever the equivalent is on a Windows box. They don't store their photos on an SMB share: they put them into a photo management app.

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