Apple: 3 Million Units Opening Weekend

Apple CEO Tim Cook announced a “record weekend” for Apple, but didn’t go into specifics. Companies will do this sometimes to boost confidence in investors and keep critics from putting too much emphasis on specific numbers. But of course, Apple simply didn’t wanna ruin the surprise. It turns out, Apple’s “record weekend” was just that, and then some, as it sold three million of it’s “new iPads” in the first weekend of release. According a press release from Apple: “The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold―the strongest iPad launch yet,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Customers are loving the incredible new features of iPad, including the stunning Retina display, and we can’t wait to get it into the hands of even more customers around the world this Friday.” By comparison, Apple sold about 4 million iPhone 4s’s during its first weekend, but we’re talking about the iPad, which cost about twice as much. That’s not too shabby, and I’m still trying to figure out why. During the iPad 2 launch, numbers weren’t released, but some analysts feel the numbers were between 500K and 1Million. During the original iPad’s launch, Apple moved about 300, 000 units opening weekend. So why are the numbers growing with each iteration? I know the Retina display is nice, and with 4G LTE speed, it surely is an attractive option. But 3 Million units? In three days? Surely, it’s got to be the word of mouth and the array of features that have so many people saying they’ve “gotta have it.” Despite the 4G LTE only working on Verizon and AT&T, Apple does boost an impressive “improvement” of features. From Apple’s press release, “The new iPad features a stunning new Retina™ display, Apple’s new A5X chip with quad-core graphics, a 5 megapixel iSight® camera with advanced optics for capturing amazing photos and 1080p HD video, and still delivers the same all-day 10 hour battery life* while remaining amazingly thin and light. iPad Wi-Fi + 4G supports ultrafast 4G LTE networks in the US and Canada, and fast networks around the world including those based on HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA.” Perhaps folks just wanted a tablet that could record and capture photos in 1080P, and had a display that would make everything as crisp as humanly possible. The Retina display is a nice game-changer and is exactly the kind of innovation that keeps Apple ahead of the curve. When reading reviews on the new iPad, they are all nothing short of praise-worthy. The Retina display is so awesome that one writer suggested not even looking at the new iPad if considering buying an iPad 2. That’s crazy. And reviews of the 4G LTE said that the speeds were faster than home ethernet. The actual device itself is fast, but so is the iPad 2, so not much difference between the core chip in the iPad 2 vs. the new iPad. My best guess is the new chip is designed be multi-cored in order to handle the graphics of the Retina display. What’s interesting is that the Retina display came out on the iPhone a while back, and critics said that it may not be able to be scaled up to an iPad. Apple has clearly been in the lab and with just three immediately obvious improvements has ensured that it stays on top of the tablet world for the time being. Check out Tech Crunch’s full review of the new iPad here, and you’ll see just how cool the display is vs. the older version. What’s even more impressive? The new iPad will launch in even more countries this Friday. Boom. rnAbout SeedCornPPC: Seed Corn Advertising is an online Advertising Network based in Los Angeles, California committed to establishing new business development partnerships and to grow your search network and ours.Learn more about SeedCornPPC by visiting us at http://www.seedcornppc.com/