According to the most recent AdMob stats, the Android platform has surpassed the iPhone’s web traffic in the US for the month of March. It’s a strange statistic, considering that AdMob is one, in the process of being picked up by Google and, two, reporting data based on ad traffic. I’m not trying to suggest that Android users are bigger suckers than their iPhone-toting counterparts, but it isn’t exactly the most accurate method on earth for analyzing web traffic.

Still, it is a method – probably the best we have – and by that method Android has pulled ahead. The iPhone is still ahead worldwide, but while it may see a domestic jump this June with the launch of the new iPhone, I can’t help feeling like Android will keep gaining ground. A lot of people really love the departure from the Apple platform, and I don’t think that’s likely to change with new iPhone hardware. There’s also the simple matter of variety – Android has it, the iPhone doesn’t. If you like the iPhone OS but don’t like the hardware, tough shit. With Android you at least have some options.

Source: Business Wire

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.

For a while there it seemed as if every analyst was ready to sell RIM up the river. The company wasn’t performing well outside the enterprise market according to most, and the iPhone and Android were gaining speed at alarming rates. Not much has changed. The iPhone has slowed a bit and Android continues to skyrocket, but according to the latest RIM numbers, the BlackBerry brand is doing surprisingly well.

The company missed its quarterly earnings mark, but not by much. Activations are at an all-time high with 4.9 million this quarter. Annual revenue is up a whopping 35 percent. CEO Jim Balsillie sounded positive and said the company is, “off to a great start in fiscal 2011 and expect strong shipments, revenue, subscriber and earnings growth in Q1.”

Shares were still down for the day, likely because of the missed earnings numbers, but all in all things don’t seem so dire. In fact, it all sounds pretty good.

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