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.

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 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.

See the full updated Apple tablet specifications for more information:

• Display:
  • 9.6″ widescreen multi-touch display (by WinTek)
  • 1440-by-1050-pixel resolution at 489 ppi
  • Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.13GHz
• Memory: DDR2 2 GB @ 667 MHz
• Video: nVidia GeForce 9400M
• Storage: 64 GB flash drive
• Optical drive: Apple SuperDrive with DVD±RW and CD-RW
• Wireless:
  • Integrated Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
  • 3G: HSDPA (through AT&T)
  • Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Location tools:
  • Assisted GPS (aGPS)
  • Digital compass
• Battery: Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery (by DynaPak)
• Usage time:
  • Internet: up to 6 hours on 3G
  • Internet: up to 12 hours on Wi-Fi
  • Video playback: up to 12 hours
• Sensors:
  • Accelerometer
  • Proximity sensor
  • Ambient light sensor
• Colors:
  • black with silver or
  • white with silver
• Software:
  • Mac OS X 10.6 with touch-enabled interface
• Price level:
  • $899 USD, 799 EUR

Apple is sure to launch a media tablet soon. New evidence is based on Apple’s SD card adoption with new MacBook Pro models. Seems like a long throw? Apple adopts SD because it wants to build a MID or media tablet. The evidence is actually quite convincing says SanDisk blogger Savolainen.

PCMCIA cards

Laptop computers since history have been supporting PCMCIA slots. These slots made it possible to extend your sometimes limited laptop computer with extra functionality, like soundcards, GPS radios, hard drives or add-on solid-state memory. The PCMCIA slot has advanced in the past years into the faster 2.5GBit variant called ExpressCard. The card uses a 26-pin 34mm wide connector. There are two ExpressCard sizes: 75mm by 34mm and 75mm by 54mm.

From ExpressCard….to SD.

Technology devices like smart phones, cameras, media players and even laptops (in the form of netbooks) have increasingly become smaller and smaller. The majority of devices are simply smaller than the ExpressCard itself. Thus, they are not able to support card. Thus, for extending your device with extra memory many of these devices now use the smaller SD card. Its size is 32mm x 24mm. It has a micro variant which is only 11mm x 15mm. A standard SD card can hold up to 4 Gb, however SDXC (extended capacity) cards have been released which move the maximum up to 2 Tb (that’s 2000 Gb). The format has become highly popular and is widely suppported.

So Apple adopted SD in their MacBook Pro’s

Finally, Apple has started to add SD card support into their MacBook Pro line up. The MacBook Pro 13″ and 15″ laptops have an SD card slot.  The MacBook Pro 17″ still has an ExpressCard slot. What is the reason for Apple changing their mind all of a sudden and abandoning ExpressCard’s? Because Apple thinks the SD card adoption in mobile internet devices (MIDs) and netbooks is so ubiquitous and its advances in memory are going so fast, that this is going to make it the only standard for removable storage in these devices. Did you hear that? The only one in. No hard drive, but just a removable solid state drive (SSD) in the form of a high-capacity SD card.

So why is this important?

The reason they are implementing SD is because of its high adoption in tablets and MIDs! But Apple does not have any tablets or MIDs right now! It seems highly likely according to Savolainen, that within the next 12 months, Apple will be announcing an Apple media tablet or MID and a netbook. A tablet is supposed to be as thin as possible, thus they will not have CD, DVD or Blu-Ray drives at all. These devices will all solely rely on SD cards for storage.

SanDisk is well-positioned to benefit from greater adoption of the standard. If other laptop manufacturers, envious of the internal dimensions taken up by an ExpressCard slots, move over to the SD Card standard so that they can make their laptopsthinner and lighter, then SanDisk, Toshiba and Panasonic should all benefit.

Apple will announce the MacBook Tablet next month. The tablet will be added to its highly-successful MacBook line. A representative for Apple US told AppleTablet.net. However she could already give us some technical specifications.This model is the first to sport an 15.4″ touchscreen and a suite of touch-optimized software that enables users to get the most out of finger or stylus input—thus transcending the capabilities of previous generations of devices in its class.