Although Apple is making the biggest headlines Wednesday for addressing the iOS tracking scandal and announcing Thursday’s long-awaited availability of the white iPhone 4, Apple has made a third announcement that will certainly be of interest to countless would-be iPad 2 buyers around the world.
This morning, Apple announced that the second-generation iPad will arrive in Japan on Thursday, April 28 and Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and eight additional countries this Friday, April 29th. iPad 2 will be available at Apple retail stores at 9 a.m. local time, select Apple Authorized Resellers, and online through the Apple Store beginning at 1 a.m.
With regard to the tablet’s availability in China, the world’s largest and fastest growing mobile population, the iPad 2 with Wi-Fi will reach China on Friday, May 6. The iPad 2 debuted in the US on March 11 and Apple bulked up distribution to 25 additional countries on March 25. Japan was initially scheduled for a March 25th launch, but the tragic earthquake there last month delayed the launch.
The full list of new countries getting the iPad 2 by Friday looks like this: Japan, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey and UAE. Apple says that further international availability will be announced at a later date.
Source: Apple
AT&T announced its quarterly earnings this morning and some are calling the numbers Verizon-proof, at least with regard to the carrier’s strong iPhone activation numbers during the first quarter of 2011. Despite the arrival of the iPhone 4 on the Verizon network in the US and months of heated rumors leading up to that eventuality, AT&T activated 3.6 million iPhones during Q1, a full 33% increase from Q1 2010.
“We delivered another robust mobile broadband growth quarter for a very solid start to the year,” boasted Randall Stephenson, the carrier’s chairman and chief executive officer. “We posted double-digit wireless revenue growth, and we set new first-quarter records in total net adds, connected device net adds and smartphone sales. Growth in tablets and other branded computing subscribers also continues to be strong.”
But, if truth be told, Stephenson’s reference to “growth in tablets” is worth another look, as tablet activations actually grew at a much smaller pace than before, with just 322,000 tablet activations. Still, AT&T says it lured in a total of 62,000 new wireless contract users in the quarter. AT&T’s total subscriber base now sits at 97.5 million, a full 12% increase over the last twelve months.
Despite the increased competition in the smartphone and tablet marketplaces and the threat of Verizon eviscerating AT&T’s iPhone user base in the US, AT&T proved stronger than many anticipated today with its Q1 earnings – a positive sign for shareholders in the quarter ahead.
Source: Bloomberg
Apple today held its financial earnings call for Q1 2011, and had some pretty amazing numbers to reveal. Coming off its best revenue quarter ever ($20.34 billion) in Q4 2010, Apple projected $23 billion in revenue for this quarter, but the real results came in today, and Apple made a cool $26.74 billion.
The breakdown of Apple’s earnings shows that iOS, and in particular the iPhone are leading the way for Apple’s record-breaking quarter. The company sold 16 million iPhones and made $10.7 billion from the iPhone and accessories alone. The iPad was a massive success during the quarter as well, as distribution of the product extended to a total of 46 countries.
Apple now states that they have sold 160 million iOS devices total. They also sold 19.45 million iPods, 50% of those iPod sales being iPod touches. Apple’s Mac sales increased as well, adding 4.13 million Macs during the quarter, a 23 percent increase over last year’s Q1 results.
Steve Jobs, who recently announced his medical leave from Apple’s day-to-day operations, commented on the results:
“We had a phenomenal holiday quarter with record Mac, iPhone and iPad sales… We are firing on all cylinders and we’ve got some exciting things in the pipeline for this year including the iPhone 4 on Verizon which customers can’t wait to get their hands on.”
I’ve got to agree with Steve here. Apple’s numbers are staggering, and even after the market opened this morning with Apple’s stock way down after the Jobs medical announcement, Apple’s stock more than made up for the drop after the earnings results were released. And with the CDMA iPhone 4 coming next month, Apple seems poised for another phenomenal quarter.
Source:
9to5Mac
CNET
Edit: I erased the line about Apple adding 160M iOS devices in Q1 2011. I got that from a live-feed post, but I think it may have been a typo.
Edit 2: Turns out they’ve sold 160 million iOS devices total. Line changed and added back in.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces new iPods, iTunes, Apple TV, iPhone update
SAN FRANCISCO – Apple Inc. announced a smaller, cheaper version of its Apple TV device for streaming movies and television shows over the Internet and into the living room. It also unveiled a new line of iPods, including a touch-screen Nano model.