Most thought Friday’s technology news would deal almost exclusively with Apple’s iPad 2 becoming available to consumers both on Apple.com and in the company’s retail stores. However, the earthquake that struck Japan quickly moved to the top of trending topic lists on both Twitter and Google Realtime. “Japan earthquake” has remained atop these lists for most of the day.
Unfortunately, cyber criminals have exploited this opportunity to implement the type of blackhat SEO and rogue fundraising campaigns saw last January after an equally devastating earthquake struck Haiti. The Federal Trade Commission acted following the disaster in Haiti with a warning to consumers to avoid donations to any organization they are not familiar with.
Despite the devastation, people still logged on to Apple.com at 4 a.m. Eastern Standard Time to order the iPad 2. The second generation Apple tablet sold out around 1:30 p.m. EST based on reports. In fact, consumers purchased so many that the expected delivery times for the devices quickly soared for the standard three to five business days to late April, according to several technology news outlets.
Prior to the device’s availability, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster released his expectations for sales in the first three months of iPad 2 delivery. According to Munster, sales could push 5.5 million between Friday and June 11. One factor driving the sales, aside from the fervor associated with any Apple product release, is its expanded retail availability. In addition to the 221 Apple stores in the U.S. carrying the iPad 2, it will also be available at Best Buy, Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless, Walmart and Target locations.
Unlike the original iPad, though, Apple did not offer pre-orders, which is expected to drive consumers into stores for iPad 2 sales.
The original iPad, despite pushing its one-year anniversary, is still a revolutionary product. However, 20 percent of current iPad users are expected to upgrade to the iPad 2 as soon as possible, according to RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky. According to Abramsky, these consumers are those that likely wanted to purchase the original iPad, but opted to wait until Apple released a better device. The fact that Apple made a faster, smaller device without raising its price at all likely convinced these consumers to make the move.
Even with the release of highly capable new tablets, market research firm IDC concluded Apple will maintain between 70 and 80 percent share in the tablet market in 2011.
However, the company did receive a bit of bad news on Monday. Market research firm comScore released its analysis of the smartphone market for November 2010 through January 201. Apple’s iPhone, while still one of the most popular devices, lagged behind phones powered by Google’s Android mobile operating system. Android accounted for 31.2 percent of smartphones in the U.S. at the end of January, which represented a 7.7 percent growth from October 2010. Meanwhile, Apple gained just 0.1 percent, ending the period with 24.7 of smartphone users counted among its subscribers.
While Android tries to cut into Apple’s massive lead in the tablet market, it appears as though Android enthusiasts are researching tablets running the OS heavily. Search results for “Android tablet” stayed on pace with those for “iPad 2” throughout the day, despite the excitement driven by Apple’s iPad 2 release.
HP is also attempting to carve a spot for itself in the tablet market. New CEO Leo Apokether said on Wednesday that he plans to make WebOS, the company’s mobile operating system, available on every device it produces. With many people using HP desktop and laptop PCs that run Windows operating systems, the ability to use WebOS on these machines will make HP’s newest product a more attractive option. Rumors surfaced early in the week regarding a potential April release date in the U.S, while TechRadar reported last month that the device would launch in the UK in June.
Once again, the popularity of “HP Touchpad tablet” as a search term demonstrates that the market still holds a large number of prospective tablet buyers reluctant to move to Apple.
Still, when the final sales numbers from the iPad 2’s first day are released this weekend, it’s likely that Apple won’t be too worried about its competition from Google, HP or anyone else.
