The initial estimates for iPad day one sales were somewhere around 700,000. I was hugely impressed by the number, especially in the context of iPhone day one sales and the Kindle installed base. As it turns out, the official sales figures are “over 300,000,” a far cry from that whopping estimate. While 300K is good it’s hard not to feel a little underwhelmed.

Technically the iPad is a new frontier. There hasn’t been a tablet device like it, and it’s certainly the sleekest of the slew of tablets that have released of late. But the iPhone OS and the App Store that make up the iPad are old hat. Millions and millions of people know and love the system, so why such middling sales?

Part of it could be that this is the first of two iPad launch days. A lot of people probably want the assurance of a 3G connection, especially since it doesn’t require a contract. The more likely reason is that no one knows just how good the iPad can be. The device has a ton of potential for media consumption but the content providers need to be on board. iPad versions of newspapers and other media are ridiculously expensive, especially considering that news and other media are freely accessible by other means. As great as browsing on the iPad must be, browsing on my laptop doesn’t cost anything, doesn’t require any app other than my browser, and is only marginally less convenient than toting around an iPad.

It seems the world is convinced that the iPad justifies the existence of expensive, tailored content when in reality it’s the reverse. The content needs to justify the existence of the iPad. If I can stream video, read books, read my news sources, browse the web and listen to music for reasonable rates then of course I want a comfortable, portable device for doing it. If that device is going to send the price of all those content streams through the roof then screw it, I’m fine with regular TV, books, DVDs that I can rip to digital formats for free, and relatively cheap music downloads on a conventional device.

It was a big day for Apple. It was a big day for fanboys (and fangirls). It was a big day for publishers. Alright, it was a big day for just about everyone. Yes, even you haters, because like it or not the iPad is here and it’s a pretty big deal. It’s the first ultra-portable device that’s capable of handling all of your day to day tasks, be it business or entertainment.

The iPad is such a big release that Steve Jobs himself showed up at the Palo Alto location to survey the damage for just under an hour. Analysts are setting estimates for day one sales around 700,000 units, a huge chunk of the supposed couple million Kindles in the wild. By comparison, the iPhone sold just 270,000 units when it launched.

The iPad does have a leg up in that it has access to the iPhone OS App Store. Along with iPhone apps, the iPad will have its own set of apps designed to take advantage of a larger screen size.

A few weeks back someone dug up some placeholder SKUs in Best Buy’s database that seemed to indicate the store would be getting the iPad. There was some speculation, though, since it seemed the first run of the device was going to sell out very quickly. As it turns out, the rumors are likely true. Several sites have managed to dig up Best Buy’s “Apple iPad Launch Playbook,” detailing protocol for day one sales of Apple’s tablet.

This is great news for anyone feeling impulsive about the iPad decision. If you haven’t already heard, the first round of iPads is completely sold out. You won’t be getting one from Apple on day one. It’ll have to wait until April 12th. That is, unless you want to hit up your local Best Buy. According to the document some 675 locations will have the iPad in limited quantities.

Source: TUAW

This weekend brought an interesting surprise for anyone attempting to purchase themselves a nifty, new, Wi-Fi iPad. It’s sold out. You can still buy it, of course, but the ship date isn’t April 3rd anymore. It’s April 12th. In-store pickup has been removed as a shipping method as well.

This is a big deal for Apple’s new device. I’m still standing behind the statement that no one really knows what it does. Yes, the promise of apps and the advent of a color ereader are nice, but $500 is a lot for that promise. Will it be that much better than a laptop? We’ll have to see.

Most estimates put the sold-out round of iPads around 500,000. That’s a crapload of units, especially considering that none of them have 3G. I know some people aren’t expecting big 3G sales, but I’d bet the nerds of the world will pick up a 3G unit for the just-in-case insurance. There’s really not a compelling reason to not get one and plenty of reasons for it. Remember, there are no contracts, so you can grab a month of service whenever you need it.

Source: 9to5 Mac

Yesterday’s early estimates suggested the iPad had moved 50,000 units in the first two hours of pre-sale. Now CNN is claiming Apple sold 120,000 units on the first day of release. Those numbers are certainly impressive, especially since no one can really say what the iPad does.

The real thing people are spending money on with the iPad is a concept. Apple did a great job of pitching the iPad as a reading device, your living room browsing experience at an extremely affordable price. It sounds great, but I have yet to see an application that makes me really burn for the device. Will iBooks be cool? Probably, but I still hate ebooks for a lot of reasons, none of which seem to be addressed by the iPad. They can be, but they certainly aren’t yet.

Lastly, you can’t ignore Apple’s hardware test period. Remember the first iPod Touch? Probably not – not many people bought one. There were serious hardware problems, though. Quiet alert sounds, no hardware volume control, and on and on. Granted, software updates fixed those problems as much as they could, but these are still pretty big issues for anyone owning the first generation of the device. The iPad won’t be as good as it was pitched to be on the first go round. If we’re lucky, it’ll be 90% of the way there by 2.0, but I wouldn’t bet on it.