Smaller iPad has strong launch

An Apple Inc. employee hands an iPad mini to a customer on Friday in Hong Kong. Apple Inc. said Monday that it sold 3 million units of its iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad in the first weekend of sales.
An Apple Inc. employee hands an iPad mini to a customer on Friday in Hong Kong. Apple Inc. said Monday that it sold 3 million units of its iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad in the first weekend of sales.

— Apple Inc. said Monday that it had sold 3 million units of its iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad during the debut weekend, a sign that the new devices can help the company withstand accelerating competition in the tablet market.

“Demand for iPad mini exceeded the initial supply, and while many of the pre-orders have been shipped to customers, some are scheduled to be shipped later this month,” Apple, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., said in a statement.

Apple began selling the 7.9-inch tablet in the U.S. and more than 30 other countries on Friday, ramping up an effort to fend off competition in the market for tablets, which NPD Display Search predicts will more than double to $162 billion by 2017. Amazon.com Inc., Google Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.are vying for shares with their own version of tablet computers.

“We estimate at least two thirds of the units are iPad minis,” Brian Marshall, an analyst at ISI Group, wrote in a research report. “The iPad mini could blunt some of the competitive threat from low-priced Google and Amazon tablets.”

Apple’s shares rose $7.82, or 1.4 percent, to close at $584.62.

Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray Cos., said the company would sell 1 million to 1.5 million units of the smaller version of the tablet. Walter Piecyk of BTIG Research said the company needed to sell 3 million units of the iPad mini to demonstrate adequate demand.

New Yorkers looking to buy the latest iPad had fewer stores to shop in after Hurricane Sandy resulted in power blackouts and hobbled transportation. Apple closed two of its five New York stores as well as some in New Jersey because of the damage. Even so, the Fifth Avenue store sold out within a few hours after almost 600 customers lined up, according to Brian White, an analyst at Topeka Capital Markets.

“With all the extreme weather, I guess people still have time to buy an iPad,” said Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc. Given the storm conditions, Apple reported “a pretty good number” for debut weekend sales.

In the third quarter, Apple’s share of the tablet market slipped to about 50 percent from about 66 percent in the prior three-month period, as demand surged for competing products from Amazon and Samsung.

Worldwide tablet shipments totaled 27.8 million in the period, an increase of 50 percent from a year earlier, researcher IDC, which is based in Framingham, Mass., said in a report Monday. Samsung shipped 5.1 million devices in the third quarter, more than double the number from the previous period. Amazon’s market share increased to 9 percent from 4.8 percent.

Business, Pages 21 on 11/06/2012

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