iPad

This is a fresh sales volume number – per WSJ (DowJones News Service) Apple’s daily unit sales of the iPad line were around 37,500. Eighty days after the launch the cumulative sales are around 3 million units. Pretty impressive…

… (Apple) said it sold three million iPads in the tablet computer’s first 80 days on the market, a performance that cements the device’s position as a driver of the consumer electronics giant’s rapid growth.

Sales of the touchscreen device, the first of a new category of tablet devices aimed at consumers, mark another triumph for Apple, which has successfully redefined the mobile market. The figures trump analysts’ initial estimates for sales of roughly 1.7 million iPads in the quarter ending June 30.

Emphasis added by IO. The source article is here (Ian Sherr and Matt Jarzemsky Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES).

The Journal plans to charge subscribers $17.99 per month for iPad subscriptions – for comparison, the print version of the WSJ costs $349 for 52 weeks or about $29 per month. Not bad, but you can’t roll up an iPad to swat the dog.

Conversely, magazines appear set to offer weekly or monthly editions out of the gate, not annual subscriptions. Sources told the WSJ that the April issue of Hearst’s Esquire magazine (no stranger to new media) will arrive in downloadable format without advertisements for $2.99, $2 less than the newsstand price, and will include five music videos (each containing the phrase “somewhere in Mississippi,” oddly enough) to take advantage of the device’s multimedia capabilities. On the other hand, a full iPad issue of Men’s Health with match the glossy’s $4.99 price.

Update – 3/27:
There is a good article in the Atlantic on pricing strategies and revenue opportunities the publishing workd is seeing in the iPad platform. Here is the link and a blurb:

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that it will set monthly iPad subscriptions as $17.99. This is what we in the biz know as cojones. I looked up WSJ subscriptions for Web and print today. It turns out that getting the WSJ on the iPad is more expensive than a subscription to WSJ.com; or WSJ the paper; or WSJ.com and WSJ the paper combined.

Let’s compare the weekly cost of reading the WSJ in various sizes and screens:

On an iPad: $4.15/week
On paper and Web: $3.50
On paper: $2.99
On Web only: $1.99
On iPhone: $1.99

Two more data points: Esquire Magazine’s first iPad issue will charge $2 less than its printed version; Men’s Health Magazine will ask for the same price ($4.99).

The Wall Street Journal has this for us (1/5/10):

1. Calls the device iSlate.
2. Cites 10 and 11 inch touchscreens.
3. March Release Date

If you have access to WSJ you can take a look at the whole article here.