Apple Sells Two Million iPads in Less Than 60 Days
Apple® today announced that iPad™ sales have topped two million in less than 60 days since its launch on April 3. Apple began shipping iPad in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK …
Context & Ripple Effects
The iPad moved from more than 300,000 first-day sales to one million units sold by early May, giving Apple a second sales milestone before the product’s first two months were complete. The new total arrives as Apple starts shipping in nine additional markets, turning an initially domestic launch into a broader rollout.
The growing installed base also matters for Apple’s adjacent services: days earlier, the company introduced an iBookstore self-publishing option for authors selling directly to readers.
First-order effects
- Apple enters nine international markets with two million iPads already sold, expanding the device’s customer base and distribution footprint at the same time.
- Authors using Apple’s new iBookstore self-publishing service gain access to a larger base of iPad readers.
Second-order effects
- Apple’s iBookstore becomes more valuable as device sales grow, increasing the incentive for authors to distribute directly through Apple rather than rely solely on established publishing channels.
- The sales pace gives Apple evidence that the iPad can support a continuing hardware-and-content rollout, rather than functioning as a one-market launch product.
Third-order effects
- If iPad adoption continues across the new markets, tablet economics will increasingly depend on pairing device sales with proprietary content storefronts and developer ecosystems.
- Apple’s early traction points toward tablets becoming a distinct computing channel, with the installed base determining which content and software platforms gain leverage.
The trend: The iPad’s rollout is tying tablet adoption to a vertically integrated model in which hardware scale reinforces Apple’s content distribution services.