Last week, Apple Inc. (AAPL) reported that their iPad tablet computer has already passed 2 million in sales not even two full months after its April release. While the tablet’s success is sure to please the technology giant’s fervent fan base, the best news is for Apple stock shareholders. As of this morning’s opening bell, AAPL stock was up over 20% year-to-date.
Apple iPad sales look like they will continue to list AAPL stock going forward, too. Macquarie Group Ltd. analyst Phil Cusick has raised his sales estimates for the iPad by 57 percent, predicting as many as 5.5 million units sold by the end of fiscal year 2010, and 13 million by the end of 2011. These estimates come following much higher demand for the device than was previously expected.
Though it is a more robust, and more expensive, piece of consumer technology, the iPad faces significant competition from competitors in the electronic book reader market, technologies that are fast replacing the once strong PDA sector. The Amazon (AMZN) Kindle has been on the market for thirty months and has seen only a fraction of the iPad’s total sales. As of December 2009, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos hinted that the Kindle had sold close to 3 million units, while outside analysts estimated closer to 1.5 million in sales.
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Barnes & Noble (BKS) is trailing both Apple and Amazon, but their tech is showing strong gains in market share. The Barnes & Noble Nook, which released during Holiday 2009, saw significant hype as a competitor to the Kindle and the then-rumored Apple tablet. Barnes & Noble stockholders shouldn’t lose hope in the device just yet. Digitimes reported in April that, of the 1.43 million e-book readers sold during Q1 2010, 53% were Nooks.
Other competitors are faring less well. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) announced their own tablet computer, the Slate, to compete directly with the iPad at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, but sources close to the company were reporting the product dead in April. Sony’s (SNE) Reader line of e-books has failed to make a dent in North American and European markets despite having beat the Kindle to market by twelve months. Samsung (SMSN) released their touchscreen e-book reader Papyrus in Asian markets last year but have yet to reveal plans for its release in the west.
