Apple sells 152,000 iPads in three days

Posted by Trafton Kenney on March 15, 2010 at 12:13 PM

Apple has received roughly 152,000 pre-orders for the iPad since Friday morning, according to early estimates by InvestorVillage.

While iPad pre-orders were coming in at 25,000 per hour the first day, Apple failed to maintain that pace as transactions dropped to 1,000 per hour over the weekend, according to Daniel Tello, a blogger who has been analyzing iPad order numbers at AAPL Insanity at Investor Village.

"With three weeks and two weekends left before they ship, I wouldn't expect more than half a million in pre-orders and reservations," Tello told Fortune.

"My best guess, although very tentative given the early stage and few data we have so far, would be that they hit the 1 million unit milestone by the second week after it ships," he said. "But this is a very speculative guesstimate based on just a weekend of pre-orders."

Starting April 3, Apple will begin shipping out the first orders of Wi-Fi equipped iPads. Apple iPads running on a WI-Fi+3G network will be available later in the month.

Roughly 70% of the 120,000 iPads sold Friday were the Wi-Fi model, likely because of its earlier availability. The remaining three models - the 16, 32, and 64 GB - were split evenly.

Newspapers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have been working with Apple to develop applications for the iPad, while USA Today is expected to debut its iPad app in the near future. The Netherlands' De Telegraaf has even posted a concept video of its app on Youtube. Once the device hits Apple stores, more papers are expected to follow their lead.

Sources: Fortune, Silicon Alley Insider