Ina Fried

Recent Posts by Ina Fried

New iPad’s First Quarter Solid but Not a Blowout, With 11.8 Million Tablets Sold

For any other company, 11.8 million tablets would be a lot to sell in a year, never mind a quarter.

But, when it comes to Apple, those sales were actually something of a disappointment. On average, Apple was expected to sell closer to 13 million iPads last quarter, the first in which it has sold the New iPad, as the latest model is known. Apple also continues to sell its last-generation iPad, the iPad 2.

Apple characterized the sales as “off to a great start.”

“The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you’re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said as part of its overall glowing earnings report on Tuesday.

Apple sold three million new iPads in just the first weekend. That led some analysts to conclude Apple might be able to sell as many as 12 million of the new models during the quarter.

And, of course, the new iPad was only on sale for the last couple weeks of the quarter, and some buyers may have held off on purchases for the earlier part of the quarter, waiting to see what Apple might add to the iPad.

Sales of the iPhone, meanwhile, breezed past expectations as Apple sold 35 million units, surpassing most analyst estimates of around 31 million or 32 million phones.

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