It’s official now. Apple has sold over 1 million iPads since launch, that’s 28 days. Apple already sold over 300,000 during the first launch weekend and the sales momentum has continued. On average each iPad user has purchased 1.5 books from the iBookstore and 12 apps from the App Store. This totals to 1.5 million books and 12 millions apps sold.
The iPad has actually outsold the iPhone in the first month!
This weekend’s launch of the iPad 3G is expected to add another 300,000 units to that number.
CUPERTINO, California—May 3, 2010—Apple® today announced that it sold its one millionth iPad™ on Friday, just 28 days after its introduction on April 3. iPad users have already downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store and over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore.
“One million iPads in 28 days—that’s less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Demand continues to exceed supply and we’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers.”
iPad allows users to connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before. Users can browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more, all using iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ user interface. iPad is 0.5 inches thin and weighs just 1.5 pounds—thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook—and delivers up to 10 hours of battery life.*
Developers have created over 5,000 exciting new apps for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch user interface, large screen and high-quality graphics. iPad will run almost all of the more than 200,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®.
*Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.
The announcement of the iPad included Apple’s own proprietary iBookstore, an application through which users can buy, store and read fiction and non-fiction works. Apple struck deals with Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, MacMillan and Hachette publishers to fill the store with their book titles. So is this the only way we’re going to read books on our iPad? Not at all!
Here’s a question for you: which platform has the biggest repository of book content in the world, as of now? Google does. With over ten million titles, Google Books is the leader in digital book content now and no competitor has come close this amount.
Google Books is not an e-book store
Google Books has its qualities. It is integrated into Google’s search engine and when our search query matches one of its millions of books, Google shows us the page. However, Google is not leveraging its book platform as a digital e-book store, as you’d expect. It chooses instead to link to online stores where the physical books are sold.
Google’s tense relationship with publishers is one of the reasons for this; Last year, Google settled a court case with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers about its unlimited scanning of books from libraries without any permission from their authors or publishers. Google defended its usage as fair-use under copyright law but as it is a profitable business, the judge was not really going to recognize Google’s defense and a settlement was the result.
The in-court settlement stated that authors and publishers can opt-out of the Google Books program and have their content removed or instead opt-in which means they receive a lump sum for their book (about $40 to $100), a share of the revenue from advertising displayed next to their books and a share of the revenue from optional selling of their books. There you have it: Google says it would like to start selling books soon through Google Checkout and deliver them to customers as standard PDF files. This would mean you could buy and read these books on any mobile device with PDF support, including the iPad. Expected is that Google will develop a more integrated app for the iPad too, like Apple’s iBookstore.
Apple iBookstore vs. Google Books
Will Apple be able to come close to the amount of titles Google has? Possibly, yes. It has done extremely well with a similar concept: its iTunes store; of which the song catalogue now contains over eleven million tracks and which has sold over 10 billion tracks since its launch. Apple’s strategy of actually striking deals with music industry record labels and book publishers at the moment appears to be more effective than Google’s brute-force strategy of just scanning content and having authors and publishers opt-out later. The settlement will make it possible for Google to start selling books but it does not seem to be rushing to do this as I can’t find any title on the Google Books store which I can buy.
Running Google Books on your iPad
Until Google releases its own Books app for the iPad, you can already use a beta version of the service in which publicly licensed books, such as Sherlock Holmes, are available. Running it is as simple as opening up the browser on your iPad and pointing it to http://books.google.com/m.
Have you been using Google Books on your iPhone, iPad or other mobile device? Does it work well for you? How do you expect Google Books and the Apple iBookstore to develop? Can they co-exist on one device? Are they actually very different from each other? Tell me in the comments!
You will have to wait to catch the 3G-enabled iPads, they will become available in late April with an AT&T data subscription included. The WiFi-enabled iPads will already be sold in from April 3 on.
On the iPad….
To learn more about what all the fuss is about and what is inside the machine, check out the Apple iPad specifications or watch some videos. The iPad has the potential change the way we consume content and for more on that check out our content revolution articles.
Pricing in US and Europe
Pricing will be $499, $599 or $699 for the WiFi-enabled iPads with respectively 16Gb, 32Gb or 64Gb of storage. For the 3G-enabled iPads the prices are $629, $729 or $829 with respectively 16Gb, 32Gb or 64Gb of storage. Based on previous pricing of the iPhone, iPod and MacBooks in Europe, the iPad is estimated to be priced at € 460, € 560, € 650. The US dollar to Euro exchange rate does not really apply here; Apple usually sets its prices different from exchange rates due to the differences in markets.
Current predictions estimate Apple will sell 1.2 million iPads until the end of 2010. Next year, sales are estimated at 3.5 million. These amounts are significantly lower than iPhone sales, and they are for a reason. Apple expects consumers needs to adapt and get used to the concept of a tablet device just like they did with the iPhone. This process will take a few years.
Will the sales predictions become true? Will the Apple iPad be a success or not? And why? Can we expect queues like we did with the iPhone in front of the Apple stores? I want to know what you think! Tell me in the comments!
Apple has started its promotion campaign for its much anticipated (and slightly hyped) iPad tablet device with a prime time advert at the Academy AwardsOscars 2010. Over 40 million Americans saw the advert and many more will watch it in replay online. In addition, “Meet the iPad”, as the ad is called, will be run on American television more times in the coming months
The commercial ad features the track “There Goes My Love” by Danish blues-rock band The Blue Van and is 30-seconds long.
The ad shows us how to unlock the device, browse through our photos on iPhoto, read and buy books in the iBookstore, use the browser to read The New York Times, watch movies, use the iCalendar, locate ourselves on Google Maps, physically rotate the device and having the screen move with it, read our email, use iWorks to create documents and presentations and use the on-screen keyboard. It finishes with the iPad’s D-Day: April 3.
A bit surprisingly Apple doesn’t show us what everyone has been talking about in the last few weeks: magazines, and how their digital usability experience might be superior on the iPad. Apple probably feels it’s too early for this, considering there’s not enough magazines out there that will be publishing for the iPad, Apple might not want to create any expectations it cannot fulfill.
Overall, it looks like a good way to quickly stir up some attention for the device with mainstream consumers.
Remember, us techie readers and bloggers know about this device, the mainstream has probably just barely heard about it. They need to be informed, involved and shown why it’s the next big thing in mobile computing for them. Has Apple succeeded in that with this ad?Tell me if you think so in the comments.
With the advent of the web, comic books experienced quite a revitalization after fans started scanning them, posting them up in online comic communities and making them available for everyone to read. To avoid being late for the party as music publishers were with online music sharing, comic publishers like Marvel quickly stepped in and started publishing their comics digitally. Marvel has been selling them through its store Digital Comics since 2007 already.
Your PC display won’t cut it
Just like with e-books, a computer screen just isn’t the most comfortable way to read a comic. Computer displays tire your eyes quickly, especially when you’re reading content. And the fact that you can’t really hold your computer like you would a comic doesn’t help the viewing experience either.
Panelfly on the iPhone
Now the iPhone was mostly meant to be used as phone, a digital communication device and to quickly browse the web. However, data shows that a high proportion of users actually use their iPhone to read e-books, comic books and magazines; and lots of them. Applications like Panelfly make it possible to download, save and read comics on the iPhone with great simplicity. All good, right? Well, that iPhone screens just seems a tad bit too tiny to read a comic on that is supposed to be the size of a Letter or A4 page.
The iPad and comics
Here’s the good news: Panelfly announced they are developing an iPad version of their comic book application. The iPad is perfect read comics on. Just like with your comic book you can walk around, lie down or put it against the wall while you read it. The app will feature an interface matched to the iPad; details are scarce but it seems to be looking really good according to Gizmodo. Panelfly already supports Marvel Comics, so you can buy those with ease. Details on how purchasing comics will happen on the iPad with Panelfly are still unknown.
Apple has remained silent if it will include comic books in the announced iBookstore. Many sources say they won’t, as the iBookstore app just is not optimized for the multimedial experience comics can bring.
The future is dynamic content
Seeing how magazine publishers are already mentioning adding dynamic multimedia objects in their magazines like audio and video, I can only speculate that the same thing might happen to digital comics in the future. What about moving to the next page of your comic and seeing Batman jump in to the page fighting the Riddler for some seconds, then slowing down and changing into a still comic book page again? I can’t wait!
Have you been reading comics on your iPhone or other mobile device? Does it work for you and how do you expect the iPad to change things for comic readers around the world? Tell me in the comments!
The moment the tech world has been waiting on for possibly decades, maybe years and definitely months has finally culminated into today…
The official launch of Apple’s highly anticipated tablet device: the iPad. Tablet computers have had a rowdy history. Developed as pen computers in the early nineties to Tablet PC is the naughties and culminating into the iPad.
Tablet computers’ rowdy history
Tablets have been announced and denounced as the future of personal computing for decades. In 1991, they were dubbed pen computers. Focussing on handwriting recognition and interaction by a pen instead of fingers, software developers like Microsoft started including Pen Extensions into Windows 3.1 making it compatible with these pen computers.
Microsoft predicted these computers would take over the consumer market in a matter of years, and hardware developers such as IBM, Samsung, Fujitsu and Toshiba quickly followed up to support the new technology with their new touchscreen devices.
Tech press was positive but consumers were not ready for it yet. The devices simply did not sell. Millions of dollars in investment were not recouped and instead lost forever.
Pulling the tablet out of the niche
In 2000, Bill Gates tried again. He was still a firm believer that this technology could succeed. Re-dubbing the pen computer into the Tablet PC, Microsoft had relative success at stirring up the industry again. Touchscreen technology had developed rapidly since the 1990s fiasco and it was clear that the keyboard would at least for now not be replaced with handwriting technology. These developments made it possible for new devices to enter the market.
However, it still was not really taking off. Even in 2007, offered by majors like Dell and HP, the tablet devices were simply too expensive with prices ranging from $1,500 up to $5,000 and staying in the premium and business niche. One of the first actually cheap devices entering the market and still including a keyboard (being covered by our sister blog) were the Taiwanese ASUS Tablets with models like the ASUS Eee PC T91 and T101 selling unexpectedly well in the consumer market. ASUS’s inferior specifications however resulted in relatively slow devices.
And then Apple stepped in…
Rumors about a tablet device by Apple have been circulating the web for years now and we took part in covering on what was simply wrong, might be true and what was definitely truth. In the last year, the rumors even started seaping into the mainstream (including paper) press coverage, showing the impact of Apple possibly launching a new device on the consumer tech world.
The stories spoke about if an Apple tablet was coming up, what it would look like (with artists all over the web rendering their own 3d interpretations), which specifications it would have and which chips the tablet would run on.
And in the last few months, rumors focused on the tablet possibly offering e-book functionality, making it a serious contender against Amazon’s Kindle e-reader. With The New York Times, Vogue, GQ, Wired and Harper-Collins already rumoring to have signed up to Apple’s content program, this made things all the more interesting.
“Come see our latest creation” says Apple
Today, the moment has arrived to see what is fact and what is fiction and how this device will supposedly change the world. In a packed and excited conference hall Apple invited worldwide press and technology pundits to “Come see our latest creation“, as the invitation read.
Steve Jobs presented us with the tablet device by Apple called the iPad. Video below.
The Apple iPad’s insides
First of all, the iPad comes in two flavours: the standard WiFi-enabled edition and the premium 3G-enabled edition with makes it possible to transfer data over AT&T’s data network. No contract with AT&T is required, however it is obvious that it will cost you to use their network.
Notable specs we really did not expect: the by Apple in-house produced A4 1 GHz processor – we were honestly thinking more of an Intel Duo Core 2 GHz as found in the Apple MacBook range. Earlier we reported the nVidia GeForce 9400M to be in the Apple Tablet. However, this one is missing; the Apple A4 chip seems to be responsible for all video processing in the iPad. Our designs of the Apple Tablet (see the background of this website or previous posts) was pretty close but did not include such a big border as the iPad. Apple has not chosen for this kind of screen for aesthetic reasons but simply to keep costs down. Cheaper screens need more technology on the sides of the displays and therefore the border is so large. We expected a USB port, to enable you to use USB data sticks and external third-party devices on your iPad but for unknown reasons Apple has made the mistake to not include this. Finally, we were wrong by 0.1″ in the size of the display; we expected 9.6″ and the iPad has a 9.7″ display.
No voice calling is available as the iPad is a data-only device. However, we have enough voice-over-ip (VOIP) options like Skype and Fring to choose from to make this possible any way; just after the iPad launch Apple has unlocked VOIP calling on the iPhone.
Focus on content and e-reading
The rumors were correct and Apple has made many deals with book, magazine and news publishers to make their content available on the iPad. Which publishers these are is until now unannounced. If we look at how the iTunes store quickly filled up with music as the major labels signed up, then this should not be such a great obstacle for Apple.
Yes, there were MP3 music stores before iTunes arrived, but Apple stirred up the music industry world due to it being such a major player in the personal computer industry, both in hardware and software. Yes, there are now e-book stores such as Amazon.com, but again Apple is bigger than those and can forge deals with major publishers more easy. In addition to facing Amazon as a competitor in e-books selling and the hardware for it (Amazon offers the Kindle e-reader), Apple will also soon face Google’s Books program which is creating deals with content publishers rapidly and currently offers the most book content out of anyone. Google plans to start selling books soon in PDF and other formats.
What you might miss on the iPad
Yes, there are some notable features missing on the iPad that are to be found on either the iPhone or a standard MacBook; the iPad does not carry a camera. It will not run Adobe Flash, making it disabled as the majority of the web uses Flash to present its content in some way including YouTube for its video streaming. Like the iPhone, the iPad also does not support multi-tasking. This is a disadvantage as much as its an advantage, it increases stability but decreases functionality. There are mixed reports about the WiFi model having a GPS chip or not; the keynote stated it would not, but Apple’s website states it will. This might have been a last-minute choice by Apple after seeing the negative press reactions on this.
Apple iPad specifications
Finally, let’s look at the numbers and data. Here’s the Apple iPad specs.
The Apple Tablet has supposedly received future content backing from the New York Times, Wired Magazine, Vogue and GQ (being not just these publications, but these companies as publishers of many more publications), Apple clearly sees the market opportunity here. Users do not like a stand-alone device with one function, such as an e-reader or a PMP. Giving them the ability to work with a device as comprehensive as the potential Apple Tablet on which they can browse the web, write notes, work on spreadsheets and for leisure listen to music, watch movies and read books is a much better solution for mainstream multimedia users.
In a decade, we will probably remember 2010 as the groundbreaking year where the way people use computers would change forever as ideas, technology and investment came together to make low-cost consumer tablet devices a reality for everyone. ASUS and MSI are the front-runners right now in terms of offering a low-cost tablet already but Apple, Dell and Intel, Nokia, HTC and many more technology giants are ready to jump in to the market in 2010. Many of these players are actually waiting to see what Apple will come up with. Like they previously with the iPod and iPhone, they won’t be the first to create something in a new product segment, but they will be the ones defining the segment with a flagship product that everyone will try to imitate.
The rumored Apple tablet is due for a February 2010 release date. Previous accounts also reported a release date in 2010. This time the information comes from a newspaper in Taiwan According to Tawian’s Economic News, Apple will be receiving parts from suppliers in December and it will then start assembling the first batch of devices for shipment in February. Mentioned is a long-lasting battery from DynaPack, it expects to make around 300,000 batteries a month for Apple. This number translates into the expected number of tablets on the market in the first months.
The newspaper also mentions some new specifications:
ARM-processor from Apple-acquired PA Semi
A 3G HSDPA connection through AT&T’s network
Long-lasting battery (up to 10 hours) from DynaPack
Price between $799 and $999
The touchscreens for the iPhone and iPod are produced by WinTek. This supplier is said to be supplying Apple with the tablet screens.
The Amazon Kindle e-book reader will be out of the market in a bang when Apple introduces the Apple Tablet (or iPad), says Steve Jobs.
The Apple Tablet will be a touchscreen MacBook used for functions as broad as browsing the web, watching movies, writing notes, playing games, and now it becomes interesting: as a device to read e-books on.
In an interview with the New York Times yesterday, Steve Jobs has hinted pretty strongly at Apple’s plans for the future. He criticizes Amazon’s Kindle strongly and continues to state that if there will be a device like the Kindle from Apple, it will be a multi-purpose device. Such as a tablet computer. Additionally he states that Apple does not see e-books as a market to move into at this point due to lack of scale.
It’s a good point. Why would a person on the move want to hold his mobile phone, media player, (touchscreen) laptop, also his e-book reader. It’s not realistic. The e-book reader is for a different kind of market. Avid book readers that stay at home, not mainstream multi-purpose media consumers.
“I’m sure there will always be dedicated devices, and they may have a few advantages in doing just one thing. But I think the general-purpose devices will win the day. Because I think people just probably aren’t willing to pay for a dedicated device.”, Steve said.
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It’s official now. Apple has sold over 1 million iPads since launch, that’s 28 days. Apple already sold over 300,000 during the first launch weekend and the sales momentum has continued. On average each iPad user has purchased 1.5 books from the iBookstore and 12 apps from the App Store. This totals to 1.5 million books and 12 millions apps sold.
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iPad News | Heather Richardson | Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
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