First guesstimates are in as to first-day pre-order numbers for Apple's iPad. According to a team at Investor Village's AAPL Sanity Board, Apple sold nearly 120,000 iPads in its first 24 hours of availability. A report from Fortune Magazine's Brainstorm Tech blog summarized the results of the Investor Village's findings.
The findings break down sales by the different iPad models, finding that the 16, 32 and 64GB iPads were equally popular. The pre-orders were almost evenly split among the 16, 32 and 64 GB models, with a slight preference for the least-expensive 16 GB model.
"Apple has been able to generate over $75 million in revenue in one day on a product that 99.9 percent of purchasers haven't touched or for that matter, even seen in person," Victor Castroll, an analyst with Valcent Financial Group, told Fortune. "And, we're still three weeks away. That is amazing." Castroll was one of the members of AAPL Sanity who monitored order numbers.
Apple's iPad officially begins to ship on April 3, with Wi-Fi-only models available at stores on that day as well. However, Wi-Fi plus 3G models won't be available in stores until late April.