Hardware
How iPad sales compare to Xbox 360, Wii and PS3
According to news sources Apple shipped 300,000 iPads on the first day. This figure included pre-orders. Some have labelled this disappointing including the Wall Street Journal. iSuppli predicted that the iPad will sell over 7 million in the first year, and it is hard to see that happening based on initial results.
However, initial sales figures like this are unprecedented for Tablet PCs. As Sumocat pointed out recently, Tablet PCs sell between 3-4 million a year. So I wondered, how does the iPad launch compare to the big selling staples of consumer electronics – gaming consoles?
PS2
US: 500,000 sold in first weekend.
Japan: 600,000 on first day
PS3
US: 197,000 units in first two weeks
Europe: 600,000 in 2 days
Xbox 360
US: 326,000 units in under 2 weeks – with production shortages.Wii
Gamecube
US: 333,000 consoles in 1 day
Source: https://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Launch
As you can see, 300,000 of any consumer electronics device is a pretty incredible feat. Bear in mind that all of the above devices entered existing and well established markets. With the 3G version of the iPad is still to come, we would expect to see another sales bubble in the next few months.
Another interesting fact from WSJ is that the original iPhone sold 270,000 units in first 30 hours. So I would say that the iPad is on track, but maybe not for 7 million in the first year.
What I can say from the experience of the last three months that iPad has significantly raised awareness of Tablet computing in general. The whole Tablet industry will benefit from Apple’s slick marketing machine.
Antimatter
04/07/2010 at 3:32 pm
I hate this 300,000 in one day statistic. When you take pre-orders for three weeks, yeah, it’s really easy to sell a lot in one day.
Especially when the number includes sales to retail parters. We don’t even know how many of those are sitting on shelves. Personally I know I can go into any of the 5 local Best Buys and walk out with an iPad in hand.
Brett Gilbertson
04/07/2010 at 5:43 pm
True, it’s impossible to get an idea of how many iPads, were really taken home, but judging by the numbers of app downloads, book purchases and people reporting wiFi problems it is still pretty huge. I would assume that the comparison console figures here would be counted similary.
Add to that the fact that the 3G version is still to come. Real tablets have 3G IMHO, so it will be interesting to se the take up of that version. That will tell us how about much price matters in this game (which I suspect is a lot).
Xavier Lanier
04/07/2010 at 9:48 pm
Regardless of the exact numbers, it is pretty impressive that the iPad is in the same ballpark as the devices listed above. There really aren’t that many consumer electronic products out there that come close.
Techni
04/08/2010 at 12:38 am
I saw that too and wondered how 300thou was a failure