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iPads at TJ Maxx were bought at retail
Just in case you missed it, here's a resolution to the whole question of where those iPads at TJ Maxx came from. A high tech tablet isn't really the usual fare for the discount clothing retailer, and Steve Jobs himself confirmed that the chain wasn't an "authorized reseller" of Apple's magical, revolutionary device. But TJ Maxx says in an official statement that it has its ways: "Earlier this week, a small number of T.J.Maxx and Marshalls stores received a very limited quantity of first quality electronic tablets that were sourced from a retailer," the chain tells Fortune. In short, they bought the iPads from someone who was authorized to sell them, and then resold them (losing about $100 off of the standard retail price) to whoever came in the store and found them. Why? The "coming in the store" part was the important one -- for around $8000, according to analysts, TJ Maxx picked up a sizable amount of foot traffic from people just coming through the doors on the weekend before Black Friday, not to mention a flurry of publicity on Apple blogs like, say, this one. In short, it was a publicity stunt. Honestly, as publicity stunts go, selling iPads for $400 is a pretty good one. Steve himself wasn't real happy about it, but if any other retail chains want to pick up the banner, we'll follow the charge. [via App Advice]
Thieves drive truck through Apple retailer's wall
We've heard of quite a few robberies at Apple Stores (and in its own twisted way, the idea makes sense -- despite the adage that 'crime doesn't pay,' laptops and iPhones are certainly easy to carry and very resellable), but this is probably the most brute force way we've seen it done. A set of thieves in Portland, Oregon just plain crashed a truck through the front window of the MacPac reseller there, and ripped off some iPads, MacBooks, and a few more devices from the store a few weeks ago. Fortunately, it sounds like things are as under control as they can be -- not only did the store's cameras capture the suspects on tape, but the police showed up within minutes, and the store's owner says that even though this has happened before, "the last person who did this we put away." So it sounds like justice will be served up, Apple retailer style, soon enough. Thanks, Patrick!
Apple sells 250k Apple TVs in six weeks
While Apple TV sales were apparently not published in Apple's quarterly earnings release, during the much-ballyhooed investor conference call yesterday, Steve Jobs noted that as many as 250,000 Apple TVs have been sold since its debut last month. To put that number into perspective, in the first month of sales of the original Apple TV (January 2007), Apple took orders of around 100,000 units. Also, prime contender Roku has reported sales of about 500,000 of its devices after being on the market for a year-and-change. Although Apple stands a good chance of taking the lead over Roku in sales at some point, as far as the company is concerned, those numbers still put the Apple TV in the "hobby" category. iPads and iPhones still reign supreme in terms of sales for the company's fourth quarter.
Estimate: Top 1000 iPad apps making $372k a day
Here's an interesting look at just how big the iPad app market might be. Vimov, the makers of Weather HD, have used their own sales numbers to put together an analysis of what the top 1,000 iPad apps on the App Store are pulling in, and they've come up with a series of estimated sales for each position in the top 100. By their reasoning, the top paid app in the store sells about 5k copies per day, with the number two app selling about 3k, the number three app about 2.5k, and so on. Vimov estimates that everyone in the top 100 list, when you add them all together, is making about US$304,058 on any given day. The shelf drops off from there -- in the top 1000, developers are making about $372,000, and past that, they're obviously making less. So, what does this all mean? First, these are obviously estimates; Vimov's app is $0.99, and Weather HD, as they say, peaked in the early frenzy around the iPad's release. They did try to account for that, but even they admit that there's some error involved. Second, things are changing quickly; Apple told us that there were around 500,000 iPads out there last week, but that number is probably much higher a week later. Also, iPad app pricing is still all over the place. Even now, you've got everything from $0.99 to $9.99 in the top 10, which suggests that profits are hard to guess. [via MacNN]
Woz to buy two iPads
Newsweek chatted with one Steve Wozniak the week before the iPad launch, and unsurprisingly, he's going all-in on the new device, and planning on picking up (at least) two, one WiFi and one 3G. He's ordered them up online already, but he says he'll still be stopping by an Apple Store on Friday evening, to "wait in line, just for fun." What a guy. He actually says he didn't think the iPad was for him, since he already had an iPhone, but he says that after thinking about it, he really is excited about the bigger screen and browsing. He also is sure that it will be popular with students and even people who aren't necessarily computer literate. "The iPad simplifies things," he says wisely. "It's like a restart. We all say we want things to be simpler. All of a sudden we have this simple thing." Sounds good. When the iPhone launched, Woz was at the San Jose Apple Store, we believe, so if you're planning on camping out in line there this weekend, keep your eyes open for a jolly computer designer carrying more gadgets than you can count.
