Apple’s fortunes with its iPad tablet computer continue to rise and rise with the company revealing that in the first 80 days more than 3m iPads have been sold around the world.
The shiny device prone to smudging that Apple CEO Steve Jobs lovingly refers to as ‘magical’ is now on sale in North America, large countries in Europe and Asia and is due to go on sale in Ireland around the middle of next month, according to sources.
“People are loving iPad as it becomes a part of their daily lives,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.
“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.”
Developers have created over 11,000 new apps for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch user interface, large screen and high-quality graphics.
The iPad will run almost all of the more than 225,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for the iPhone or iPod touch.
Users can browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read e-books and much more, all using iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface.
The iPad is 0.5 inches thin and weighs just 1.5 pounds—thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook—and delivers up to 10 hours of battery life.*
Starting in 2012, tablets will outsell netbooks, and by 2014, more consumers will use tablets than use netbooks, according to a new forecast from Forrester Research.
Early evidence exists to show that consumers who were saving up to buy a netbook are switching instead to buy the Apple iPad, which is in short supply in the US.
By 2015, Forrester forecasts the US PC market will break down as such (based on pc age of units sold in 2015): notebooks (42pc), tablets (23pc), desktops (18pc), and netbooks (17pc).
