Hey, the Sony Playatation 2 sold, what was it? 140 million? XBox 360 is up into the 30-million-esque mark. I think the iPad has a while to go yet. I was down at JB-HiFi on the weekend and they weren't exactly "flying" off the shelves there. In fact, during my 30 minutes in the store (which was close to closing time) not one person bought one, but many were curious. Just sayin...
@buoy I'm sorry but thats a ridiculous argument. In what way is comparing the sales of a GAMING CONSOLE to the sales of a TABLET COMPUTER a good bench mark?
@buoy Excellent argument. Seriously? You cannot compare those devices with the iPad. I understand the whole gaming factor of the iPad but it is not a "gaming console."
Wow - okok I'm sorry - i think i've been misunderstood here - all I was saying was it's kinda too early to celebrate it being a "success" on 2 million shipped, there's still a long way to go before we would say it's a "success". I'm not arguing that the iPad ISN'T a success compared to x, y, z device because they've shipped so much more (looks at jrcburrows) what I AM saying is that you don't measure success 2 months after release date. It's going to be a long haul, the iPad has a good start, I'm just saying don't count your chickens before they've hatched.
The success is, Apple doesn't sell iPads for a loss to gain market share like Xbox and PS2 did. Their 2 million+ iPads are profits to their bottom line.
As an investor, I would consider a couple of hundred million in profit a success, it's only been out for 2 months and generated enough buzz to sell well into the Christmas season. This is a new area of revenue for Apple.
I own both msft and aapl, only one of them has done well for me in the last 7 years.
Those 2 million equate to about 1.2 billion dollars in revenue. Subtract production and design and whatever cost and you will still get more than 600 million in profit. Combine that with all those cases and camera connectors that they are selling for an incredible profit. How can you not call this a success for any company or product?
@petethefreeze the Sony PSP has sold just under 70 million units and made a profit from day one and it's, well, not considered a success. Look it's a new market and we don't know the full potential of it yet as there isn't a real world precedent. Taking stock 2 months after a release where many of the potential buyers will be from the Apple userbase itself doesn't give us much unbiased data to work on. If you'd just step back for a second and look at the figures with a less biased set of eyes you'd see I'm not being unreasonable at all when I say we should wait and see. Rushing in and claiming the iPad is a "success" after a few weeks isn't the best idea.
Well put, and I agree. Up till now the introduction of the iPad parallels that of the Wii. This was also sold out for weeks if not months. Now a few years after the introduction it is dying a painful death. I wouldn't call the Wii successful by a long shot.
This could happen to the iPad also, although I personally think this is the start of a new product line of Apple that will keep evolving in the same way as the iPod line has.
Wait a second. The Wii isn't successful? Are we living on different planets?
I mean, I know there aren't many good games for it, especially from 3rd parties, but virtually everyone I know has a Wii. If the Wii is not a success in your eyes, then you must view 99% of all consumer products as complete failures.
Do you know anything about managing a product? There are more than just production and material costs to recoup. The iPad P&L will include R&D, marketing, transportation, various contract service fees, license fees (for services like Exchange), customer and client support training and operations, software development, hardware costs and other shit. People that go buy iSuppli's $260 material cost estimate and think Apple is making the rest in profit are freaking clueless and should go to college instead of playing Warcraft all day and working at a fast food joint.
Apple's margins are big but nowhere close to what you think genius. Microsoft's Windows product has a far greater profit margin.
@ebgolfin Yeah, everyone you know has a Wii, but how many actually play it on a regular basis? I admit that I have one also, but like the majority of Wii owners, don't play it hardly at all (maybe once a month when friends are over and we decide to bowl drunk). Also, once the other platforms motion controllers catch on, Nintendos only gimmick will be common place.
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Hey, the Sony Playatation 2 sold, what was it? 140 million? XBox 360 is up into the 30-million-esque mark. I think the iPad has a while to go yet. I was down at JB-HiFi on the weekend and they weren't exactly "flying" off the shelves there. In fact, during my 30 minutes in the store (which was close to closing time) not one person bought one, but many were curious. Just sayin...
@buoy Hey, the Sony Playstation 2 has been available for what.. 10 years..
@buoy I'm sorry but thats a ridiculous argument. In what way is comparing the sales of a GAMING CONSOLE to the sales of a TABLET COMPUTER a good bench mark?
@buoy
Excellent argument. Seriously? You cannot compare those devices with the iPad. I understand the whole gaming factor of the iPad but it is not a "gaming console."
Wow - okok I'm sorry - i think i've been misunderstood here - all I was saying was it's kinda too early to celebrate it being a "success" on 2 million shipped, there's still a long way to go before we would say it's a "success". I'm not arguing that the iPad ISN'T a success compared to x, y, z device because they've shipped so much more (looks at jrcburrows) what I AM saying is that you don't measure success 2 months after release date. It's going to be a long haul, the iPad has a good start, I'm just saying don't count your chickens before they've hatched.
@buoy
The success is, Apple doesn't sell iPads for a loss to gain market share like Xbox and PS2 did. Their 2 million+ iPads are profits to their bottom line.
As an investor, I would consider a couple of hundred million in profit a success, it's only been out for 2 months and generated enough buzz to sell well into the Christmas season. This is a new area of revenue for Apple.
I own both msft and aapl, only one of them has done well for me in the last 7 years.
@buoy
3M sold twenty gazillion post it notes.. The iPad is nowhere...
@buoy
Those 2 million equate to about 1.2 billion dollars in revenue. Subtract production and design and whatever cost and you will still get more than 600 million in profit. Combine that with all those cases and camera connectors that they are selling for an incredible profit. How can you not call this a success for any company or product?
@petethefreeze the Sony PSP has sold just under 70 million units and made a profit from day one and it's, well, not considered a success. Look it's a new market and we don't know the full potential of it yet as there isn't a real world precedent. Taking stock 2 months after a release where many of the potential buyers will be from the Apple userbase itself doesn't give us much unbiased data to work on. If you'd just step back for a second and look at the figures with a less biased set of eyes you'd see I'm not being unreasonable at all when I say we should wait and see. Rushing in and claiming the iPad is a "success" after a few weeks isn't the best idea.
@buoy
Well put, and I agree. Up till now the introduction of the iPad parallels that of the Wii. This was also sold out for weeks if not months. Now a few years after the introduction it is dying a painful death. I wouldn't call the Wii successful by a long shot.
This could happen to the iPad also, although I personally think this is the start of a new product line of Apple that will keep evolving in the same way as the iPod line has.
@petethefreeze Yeah cos Apple wont release a new iPad for the next 4 years, yeah.
@petethefreeze
Wait a second. The Wii isn't successful? Are we living on different planets?
I mean, I know there aren't many good games for it, especially from 3rd parties, but virtually everyone I know has a Wii. If the Wii is not a success in your eyes, then you must view 99% of all consumer products as complete failures.
@bread
Didn't you read the last line of my comment, or didn't you understand it?
Do you know anything about managing a product? There are more than just production and material costs to recoup. The iPad P&L will include R&D, marketing, transportation, various contract service fees, license fees (for services like Exchange), customer and client support training and operations, software development, hardware costs and other shit. People that go buy iSuppli's $260 material cost estimate and think Apple is making the rest in profit are freaking clueless and should go to college instead of playing Warcraft all day and working at a fast food joint.
Apple's margins are big but nowhere close to what you think genius. Microsoft's Windows product has a far greater profit margin.
@ebgolfin Yeah, everyone you know has a Wii, but how many actually play it on a regular basis? I admit that I have one also, but like the majority of Wii owners, don't play it hardly at all (maybe once a month when friends are over and we decide to bowl drunk). Also, once the other platforms motion controllers catch on, Nintendos only gimmick will be common place.