Analyst Estimates 700,000 iPads Sold on First Day

Despite Apple launching the iPad yesterday with only the Wi-Fi model available, it seems the device may have surpassed even the iPhone's milestone of selling roughly 270,000 in its first 30 hours. According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, the iPad may have sold somewhere around 600,000 to 700,000 units Saturday. Those numbers include pre-orders done prior to launch. Could Munster be off? It's possible. Let's analyze the numbers.

Back in June 2009, Munster guessed that Apple had sold 500,000 of the iPhone 3GS in its launch weekend and that proved to be wrong. A week later, Apple issued a press release announcing it reached one million sales over the three-day span. While he did adjust his numbers a couple days later, he was still quite a bit off the mark with only estimating 750,000.

Almost a year later, Munster suggested first weekend sales of the iPad to be around 200,000 to 300,000 units. The estimate change came following "longer than expected lines at the start of the day" and retailers' increasingly limited supplies. Accounts of consumer lines at retailers vary from dead to lively, likely due to the availability of pre-orders for the iPads online. Apple's manufacturing partner, Foxconn, reported that they only had roughly 600,000 to 700,000 iPads for March. If Munster's numbers are true, fervor for the device has reached unthinkable heights. Congratulations Apple if this is indeed true.

Tags: sales, first day, piper jaffray, gene munster, news