Report: 600,000-700,000 iPads sold on Day 1
Lines reportedly thinned out quickly at Best Buy and Apple Inc. stores Saturday but when the dust had settled on the iPad's first day of sales an estimated 600,000 to 700,000 had been sold.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster's issued that assessment of sales in stores and pre-orders, doubling his pre-launch estimate.
The first iPhone took 74 days to hit 1 million sales, while the subsequent iPhone 3G and Phone 3GS both hit the million mark in three days.
Fortune reported that as of 7:30 Saturday night, only one of the 20 stores contacted by Munster's team said they had run out of iPads.
Twitter messages on Sunday morning however reported sellouts at many Best Buys and some Apple stores, including in Palo Alto and San Jose.
The 9.7-inch touch-screen iPads sold over the weekend are priced starting at $499 and for now include only the ability to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi.
Versions that are also capable of running on AT&T's 3G wireless network are scheduled to go on sale at the end of the month.
CEO Steve Jobs, his wife and daughter visited the Palo Alto Apple store themselves, while co-founder Steve Wozniak made another of his celebrated "regular guy" visits to a company store at Valley Fair mall in San Jose.
Tech blogger Robert Scoble posted a video on YouTube of what it was like to be the first iPad customer at the Apple store in Palo Alto.
The Better Business Bureau cautioned that scams have cropped up around the country in connection with the iPad launch, some of which offer victims a free iPad in exchange for a consumer's credit card number or other personal information.
The BBB said consumers should buy their iPad directly from Apple or an authorized retailer.
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