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In: gadgets
20 Mar 2010How well did the iPad do in its first week you might ask? It looks like Apple’s first tablet sold quite well. We talked about unofficial numbers already and it was pretty clear that the device will sell very well even if customers haven’t actually had the chance to experience it so far.

The Wall Street Journal had access to inside sources that apparently said Cupertino “sold hundreds of thousands of the device” already. That must mean that Apple has sold at least 200k iPads already if not more since it has been reported earlier that in the first day alone Apple moved more than 120,000 units. Not a bad first week for Cupertino which goes to show, again, that Apple is not only very good at conceiving new devices but it is also very talented when it comes to pitching them to consumers and convincing them they absolutely need them, when in fact they really don’t.
According to some sources the iPad sales are going to surpass the sales of the original iPhone although, at least to me, that comparison only reflects one thing: Apple is better as selling stuff than it was before, and that’s really not a surprise anymore.
Even if the iPad is basically an iPhone on steroids, one can’t compare the two devices like that. The iPhone was the first smartphone from Apple, a company that didn’t have any experience in the mobile business at that time. Being a brand new technology, the original iPhone was also more expensive at first than the iPad and, most importantly, was tied to a carrier, which convinced some consumers not to buy it immediatelly.
The iPad comes three years later, a time in which Apple proved that it can take the smartphone business by surprise and rule it in a very short time frame. Thus the company can afford to make the iPad and future iPhones more affordable and not require consumers to sign up new 2-year agreements with AT&T or any other carrier for that matter, at least when it comes to iPad purchases.
Therefore, again, we are not surprised that Apple is doing well at selling the device nor are we really interested in iPhone vs iPad sales comparisons. What we are interested is what Apple will do to convince iPad users that they absolutely need an iPad in their lives. That’s right, folks, the iPad is all nice and dandy, even with the obvious flaws that it has, but content will be key to keeping early adopters from reselling it and moving to the next hot thing!
Original Post Link: iPad Sales Rumored to be in the “Hundreds of Thousands” Already [Apple iPad Sales to Beat Corresponding Original iPhone Sales; Original iPhone Says He Couldn’t Care Less] | Published by TFTS – Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities
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In: web resources
20 Mar 2010
In order to have access to iPad testing units, developers and testers had to agree to keep the device tethered to a fixed object in an isolated room with blacked-out windows, according to a report by BusinessWeek.
That’s pretty hardcore. It’s unclear from BusinessWeek’s report if that was a condition enforced before the iPad was unveiled to the public or if it’s something that will be kept up until the April 3 launch date.
Apple is a notoriously secretive company, especially when it comes to new products. Outside of partnerships with content publishers like The New York Times, Wired and The Wall Street Journal who have either confirmed interest or already shown demonstrations of their applications, the few developers that do have access to the iPad are keeping their mouths shut.
It also appears that in order to be on the list for the iPad, developers or companies had to be pretty high on the totem poll. Not even Trip Hawkins, who founded Electronic Arts and once worked at Apple, could get a testing unit for his new company, Digital Chocolate.
Now, not having physical access to the device doesn’t preclude developers from creating apps for the iPad — Apple actually started accepting apps for review today — but it does make refining the app much more difficult.
As was the case with the iPhone, we expect the best iPad apps to be those that can take advantage of multi-touch in ways that just feel better. Gestures and interactions on a bigger screen are probably features that will need to be refined over time — just as they were with the original iPhone.
The degree of Apple’s iPad-related secrecy might sound well, paranoid, but the fact is, at least for now, the company can get away with it. The mobile ecosystem is so hot — especially for the iPhone — that getting on the iPad and getting on early is worth the hoop-jumping for many developers. Some would even to settle for using an emulator until the product is officially launched.
What do you think of Apple’s corporate culture of secrecy? Let us know!
Tags: app store, apple, developers, ipad, secrecy
In: gadgets
18 Mar 2010It’s not really a shock that some of the the hi-tech geeks who work for Microsoft would enjoy the iPhone over the (usually) dreadful Windows Mobile devices. But, as it turns out, they’re forced to hide their iPhones from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Very few employees will use an iPhone openly, some disguise them in “old” smartphone cases (Palm Treo 680, anybody?).

Why Microsoft has no official ban on using iPhones at Microsoft’s Redmond campus, Steve Ballmer, according to reports from within, says frequently to employees that when his father was a manager for the Ford Motor Company, they drove Ford cars. For example, Steve Ballmer told Fortune magazine in 2006 that his kids don’t use an iPod, and that they used Windows Live Search (now Bing) over Google.
Sources within Microsoft say that when word spreads that Ballmer or other high-level executives are coming by various buildings in the Microsoft campus, iPhones disappear out of sight. While nobody has been fired for seen using an iPhone, it definitely sounds like an interesting atmosphere.
The Wall Street Journal, who broke the story, compared it to Apple, where it reports that most Apple employees, from the engineers at Cupertino to the retail jockies at Apple Stores all proudly use Apple computers, iPhones, etc. This story has to be viewed through the lens of Windows Phone 7, which, by all accounts, looks to be much better than Windows Mobile 6.5 (and any version of Windows Mobile, actually). It’ll be interesting to see if the iPhone users at Microsoft make the switch to Windows Phone 7.
How do you feel about the (so-called) “culture of fear” at Microsoft regarding the iPhone?
Original Post Link: Microsoft Employees Hide Their iPhones Around Ballmer [Sources Say 10% Of Microsoft Employees Are Avid iPhone Users, Hide Their Phones When Executives Are Around] | Published by TFTS – Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities
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