By all accounts, Friday’s launch of the iPad 2 was a success. Analysts say the company likely sold at least 500,000 units over the weekend — with some saying Apple may have sold close to a million units. If you found an iPad on Sunday, consider yourself lucky: most places had sold out of the device on Saturday if not on launch day itself.
This success may be the reason why Apple may be quietly planning to open some of its stores an hour early on Tuesday, according to the Apple Bitch blog. Those walking into Apple Stores today are being told that even if they receive shipments today to replenish stocks, iPad 2s will not available until Tuesday.
With many stores opening typically at 10:00am, this would mean those stores would open at 9:00am instead.
Don’t tell Apple, but I might’ve upgraded to an iPad 2 if GarageBand didn’t work on the original. As a lapsed musician, I’ve been cobbling together iPad music apps since last year, but I could never find the one that did it all — recording, sampling, looping, synthesizing — at least in an affordable package.
We may want to file this one in the so-obvious-it-doesn’t-need-an-analyst department: the tablet sector may be en route to a shakeout later this year. JP Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz wrote in a report released Wednesday that competitive pressures put on companies by the iPad 2 might be enough to cause the “bubble” to burst.
