Apple has managed to sell three million shiny iPads in just 80 days – or one tablet every three seconds.
“People are loving [the] iPad as it becomes a part of their daily lives,” trumpeted an obviously pleased Steve Jobs in an official Apple press release.
“We’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more people around the world, including those in nine more countries next month.”
He added that developers have already created over 11,000 new apps for the device that take advantage of its multi-touch user interface, large screen and high-quality graphics.
So, is the steamrolling iPad virtually unstoppable?
Well, a recent survey conducted by Retrevo suggests that an “army” of reasonably priced Android devices may very well be capable of halting Apple’s tablet offensive.
“When we asked consumers what would get them to buy an Android-based tablet over an iPad, the number one answer was price,” explained Retrevo spokesperson Andrew Eisner.
“While 53% of our respondents said they weren’t interested in buying a tablet at all, of the other 47% who wanted one – a little over half (53%) said they’d buy an Android tablet if it was less expensive than an iPad followed by 33% percent who said if it offered Verizon for connectivity.”
According to Eisner, a number of respondents felt the iPad carried too high of a price tag.
“When we asked consumers what would prevent them from buying an iPad…The most common answer was ‘don’t need one,’ followed by ‘too expensive.’ When we looked at the iPhone owners in that group we found only 26% of those thought they didn’t ‘need’ an iPad.
“[So], whether or not the iPad will be snapped up by the masses remains to be seen but it’s off to a good start. As Steve Jobs said, Apple has sold one every three seconds since it went on sale.”
