Sales

Fourth-gen iPad orders pushed back one week

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 30, 2012

Deliveries of orders of the fourth-generation iPad with Retina display have been postponed until one week on the online Apple store. This comes just after shipments of the new iPad mini were delayed two weeks following its arrival to stores last week. Both devices became available for pre-order four days ago. 72 hours later, the initial stock of the 16GB iPad mini was sold out. First, the more popular black model was gone and was quickly followed by iPad mini shortages across the board. Both tablets were introduced at Apple's October 23 media event...

iPad mini Wi-Fi shipments delayed two weeks

Ed Sutherland ∙ October 29, 2012

If you want a Wi-Fi version of the iPad mini, you'll need to wait two weeks. That's the word this morning as both the black and white iPad mini report a two-week delay for Apple Store customers. The white model quickly went on the waiting list soon after Apple began accepting pre-orders Friday. The Wi-Fi versions of the iPad mini were set to ship Friday, November 2 with the LTE model expected in late November...

Poll: which iPad mini will you be pre-ordering?

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 25, 2012

Apple, as you know, starts taking pre-orders for the iPad mini tomorrow, October 26, through its online store in 26 different countries. Friday the following week, WiFi-only models are scheduled to land simultaneously on store shelves in 34 countries around the world with the WiFi + Cellular model arriving "a couple of weeks after the WiFi models", according to Apple.

You can place your pre-order for any iPad mini model, either cellular or WiFi-only, at midnight tonight. The device will also be available in the United States on carriers AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless. The 16GB WiFi version starts at $329. The more capacious models each cost a $100 more than the previous one.

Want 4G LTE capability? That's a $130 extra versus its WiFi-only counterpart. So, which iPad mini is you?

Data suggests the iPad lost momentum in Q3

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

CEO Tim Cook shared an interesting milestone during yesterday's iPad mini unveiling: Apple two weeks ago sold its hundred millionth iPad. Now, hundred million of anything is enough to give you a pause, but a quick look at Apple's SEC filings reveals that iPad sales in the September quarter were in fact slowing down. Apple sold a total of 84.12 million iPads when it closed books on the last day of the June quarter.

This means the company since June 30 and through October 9 added about 15.88 million iPads. Don't forget this includes ten additional days of sales outside the September quarter. The figure certainly doesn't compare favorably to June quarter's sales of 17.57 million units. Did Apple release the iPad mini because the iPad was losing its momentum as a portion of would-be shoppers perhaps opted for cheaper tablets from Amazon and Google?

Analyst predicts the iPad mini will kill off the iPod touch

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated June 5, 2018

Is Apple getting ready to discontinue the iPod touch, now that the Cupertino, California firm has a bevy of low-priced alternatives, including the just-announced iPad mini? That's the opinion of one analyst who has correctly predicted the demise of other Apple products. The iPod touch "has entered the final stage of its product life cycle," according to Ming-Chi Kuo, analyst with KGI Securities. He also believes Apple "will not invest significantly in developing future models"...

Can a smaller iPad up the cool quotient in education?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2016

As Apple dresses up San Jose's California Theatre for Tuesday's big event, rumors multiply suggesting a strong K-12 push for the iPad mini. The Next Web was first to report of this, providing a screenshot depicting an e-book listing on the iTunes Store which inadvertently mentioned Apple's iBooks 3.0, which hasn't been released yet.

Today, Bloomberg confirms the iPad mini's focus on education and expands on existing reports by writing that Apple expects the forthcoming device to widen its lead in education over Amazon and Google, whose respective seven-inch tablets start at just $199. Eve with the smaller iPad expected to command a premium, possibly starting as high as $329 (or $249 if Barclays Plc is right and this leak is legit), Apple certainly will offer discounts to educational institutions which buy devices in bulk.

We're also expecting interesting back-to-school promos centered around the iPad mini, much in the same way the company's been doing for years with MacBooks, iPods, iTunes Gift Cards and other gear...

More sources chime in confirming November 2 iPad mini availability

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

A smaller iPad has gotta be one of the industry's worst kept secrets in 2012. It will also be competition's worst nightmare. Now, Apple last week issued invites for a media event scheduled to take place next Tuesday, October 23 in San Jose’s California Theatre rather than the usual venues, San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts or Apple’s own campus in Cupertino, California. We've heard whispers that general availability was already scheduled for November 2 and now more credible sources are chiming in to confirm the date...

Apple changes sales tactics as the iPhone’s share in India plummets to new lows

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

I've previously written about Apple's woes in India, where the company was forced to re-price the iPhone 3GS because cheap Android handsets took the market by storm. It's really the same problem plaguing Apple in any other country, only it's way more pronounced in India, a 1.24 billion people market that buys 220 million handsets per year.

India is also home to the largest concentration of people living below the World Bank’s international poverty line of $1.25 per day. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Apple's exorbitant pricing model in India couldn't fly with the vast majority of would-be buyers who simply cannot afford an iPhone at Apple's terms of business...

iPad mini release date allegedly pegged at November 2

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 17, 2012

As Apple gets to show us "a little more" next Tuesday, and taking into account that Microsoft's Surface tablet will hit store shelves next Friday, watchers have been wondering whether the iPad mini will be immediately available following the introduction, on the Friday following the event or the following week. The iPhone 5, for example, was unveiled on Wednesday, September 12 and hit store shelves the following week on Friday, September 21. According to a new report citing a source close to a major UK retailer, the iPad mini will hit retail stores on November 2 (that's a Friday)...

Microsoft begins taking pre-orders for the Surface RT tablet, shipping October 26

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 27, 2017

A page briefly went online earlier this morning over at Microsoft's online store, revealing possible prices for ARM-based Surface RT models. It wasn't just a glitch in the system: Microsoft has officially announced it will begin taking pre-orders for the device later today at 12pm Eastern, 9pm Pacific. $499 buys you an entry-level Surface RT with 32 gigabytes of storage and a 10.6-inch display, but no Touch Cover - that's an additional $119.

The Surface RT is initially available for pre-order in eight countries via Microsoft's online store and is set to ship next Friday, October 26, alongside Windows 8 and three days after Apple's rumored iPad mini keynote...

Analysts: Mapgate not affecting insatiable demand for the iPhone 5

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 1, 2012

With last Friday's addition of 22 new countries, the iPhone 5 is now available in 31 major markets but many would still be hard pressed to buy one due to dwindling stock both in the United States and in other countries around the world. By all accounts, the iPhone 5 demand is off the charts, Mapgate be damned.

Matter of fact, quite the opposite is happening: demand for the iPhone 5 is surging as mapping woes don't appear to slow sales (though customer satisfaction ratings did take a hit). Looks like that CEO apology was a pre-emptive maneuver to smartly protect the brand in the long haul...

iPhone 5 initial sales held back by limited supplies

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Wall Street analysts were busy Monday attempting to explain why Apple's record-setting sales of 5 million iPhone 5 handsets during the weekend was fewer than investors expected. Among the chief reasons offered: there just weren't enough of the new smartphones to meet demand. Despite the disappointment, Apple watchers remained confident the Cupertino, Calif. company still has the Midas Touch.

High-profile analyst Gene Munster told investors Apple's sales figures released earlier today did not include online preorders, which he estimated at around 1 million units. Another potential reason "only" 5 million iPhone 5 were reported sold during the initial launch weekend: Apple was reserving some of its inventory for the smartphone's international launch on Friday...