Apple Sells Three Million iPads in Three Days

When Apple's share price took a hit on the announcement of iPad Mini pricing, apparently it was because the analysts though the price was too high. Note - not because Apple's margins were going to be lower on the iPad Mini (which they are), but because they weren't cutting their margins by enough! Given the Apple will sell these things as fast as they can make them, Wall Street was effectively upset that Apple would be making too much money.<p>This from a company who's whole strategy is about being the upmarket, high margin option. They're so obviously leaving a price umbrella so that next year they can price-drop the current version when the next iPad Mini comes out and still make money hand over fist, while also leaving the opposition nowhere to go price wise.<p>They release a blockbuster refresh of their main products and gear up to make more money than ever before and their stock price dives 12%. Unbelievable.

Couple of quick questions: a) Interesting they're not breaking it out between the two given substantially different models and price points? b) The two questions about the Mini are i) does it cannabalize the higher margin "normal" iPad sales and ii) does it slow down Nexus/Fire Android tablets? If it does i) and not ii) then it's arguably a failure. If it does ii) and not i) it's a wild success. Without a break out here between the two models it's really hard to know how to judge these numbers.<p>I most interested in day 30 - 100 when the initial buzz wears off.

At first I thought it’s a pointless device for me, but after several hours with it I think it’s one of the greatest casual gaming devices on the market. The screen of iPod and iPhone is too small and ‘the new or whatever’ iPad is too large by itself. This holiday season it’s a much better choice as a present for kids than iPod touch.

It is amazing how well Apple has done in growing so massively during a world wide economic downturn/depression.

And this is only the wifi models of the iPad mini - the 4G ones are coming in a few weeks. Impressive.

Wow! Where does all these customers come from? It seems a lot of consumers buy these products just because they have to have latest Apple gadgets.

Does that number include pre-orders? Because really it would be 10 days since preorders began, not just three.

I personally think it's interesting that what would otherwise be a STUNNING sales feat (for just about any other company) is greeted as merely okay or downturnish.<p>IMO, it would be hard for me to think of any company that would not consider this a successful launch.<p>Sure there's talk of cannibalizing of larger iPad sales but for me the larger iPad was not that interesting due to having to carry a laptop AND a tablet is painfully heavy (it adds up). I was debating waiting for a Mini with a Retina display but decided early Friday morning to just pick one up.<p>This is my first ever iOS device and in the days since last Friday, it's been fun to use, is the right form factor for my use cases and frankly, I'm happy with my decision. YMMV.<p>Now, my next most pressing problem is to find a case for it... Suggestions anyone?

Funny how poorly that page renders on an iPad :-) Wish they would break out 4th gen sales. I agree with many folks that first weekend bookings of a trendy device make for good press and poor investment research. The jan-mar quarter is a better place to try to divine how effective there strategy is wrt to the tablet market.

I think this goes to show that the tablet market that Apple is playing is both different and not as price sensitive as the one Google, Amazon, etc are playing in.<p>After January 1st, there will (probably) be sub-$300 "good as new" iPad minis available as refurbished devices in the Apple Store too...

there are 4.5 mln android devices sold every 3 days

Apple sales are high due to international availability, and thats no ordinary feat. It would interesting to see US only numbers.<p>I liked the old Apple, which out-sold the competition just on their product and product differentiation.

I've lost faith in humankind. I can die with peace at least.