(BN) Apple Says IPad Tablet to Go on Sale April 3 in U.S.

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "CONNIE GUGLIELMO, BLOOMBERG/ NEWSROOM:" <cguglielmo1 () bloomberg net 
> >
> Date: March 5, 2010 11:27:52 AM EST
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: (BN) Apple Says IPad Tablet to Go on Sale April 3 in U.S.

> fyi
>
> +-- 
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> --- 
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> -------------------------------------------------------------------+
>
> Apple Says IPad Tablet to Go on Sale April 3 in U.S. (Update2)
> 2010-03-05 14:46:40.497 GMT
>
>
>     (Adds analysts’ comments starting in fourth paragraph.)
>
> By Connie Guglielmo and Mary Childs
>     March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc., betting on consumer
> demand for touch-screen mobile computers, plans to start
> selling the iPad in the U.S. on April 3 and will take preorders
> for the device next week.
>     The company will initially sell models that connect to the
> Internet using Wi-Fi networks, starting at $499. Versions that
> can also tap mobile-phone networks will be available in late
> April, Apple said today. When Apple introduced the iPad in
> January, the company said it would be available in March.
>     Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs has pitched the
> iPad as mobile device that falls between smartphones and laptop
> computers. With a 9.7-inch (25-centimeter) touch screen, it
> serves up Web pages, e-mail, music, videos, games, electronic
> books and iPhone applications. Apple may sell as many as 6
> million this year, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
>     “Demand will far outstrip supply for the next little
> while,” said Peter Misek, an analyst at Canaccord Adams in
> Toronto, who rates the shares “buy” and doesn’t own any. “The
> U.S. is a priority market so the U.S. is going to get the first
> supply.”
>     Apple said today that all iPad models will be available in
> Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain,
> Switzerland and the UK in late April.
>
>                      ‘Largely Wi-Fi Driven’
>
>     Apple, based in Cupertino, California, rose $6.12, or 2.9
> percent, to $216.83 at 9:45 a.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock
> Market trading. The shares have more than doubled in the past
> year.
>     For $499, customers get a tablet with 16 gigabytes of
> memory. The 32-gigabyte version is $599, while a 64-gigabyte
> iPad is $699. Models that link up to AT&T Inc.’s third-
> generation, or 3G, wireless network will cost $130 more than
> their Wi-Fi counterparts.
>     AT&T, the exclusive provider of iPhone service in the U.S.,
> expects more customers will choose the Wi-Fi versions than spend
> the $14.99 or $29.99 per month for iPad 3G service, AT&T Chief
> Executive Officer Randall Stephenson has said.
>     “Our expectation is that there’s not going to be a lot of
> people out there looking for one more subscription,” Stephenson
> said at a Morgan Stanley technology conference on March 2. “We
> think it’s going to be a largely Wi-Fi-driven product.”
>
>                          Online Books
>
>     Interest in the iPad could help spur worldwide PC sales in
> 2010 as customers look at tablets as an alternative to notebooks
> and netbooks, according to Gartner Inc. Sales of traditional PC-
> tablet computers and next-generation tablet devices like the
> iPad may reach 10.5 million units this year, the Stamford,
> Connecticut-based research firm said this week.
>     In addition to its iTunes site, which distributes music,
> movies and TV shows, Apple is setting up an online bookstore to
> distribute titles in the iPad’s new iBook format, challenging
> Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle reader.
>     Apple has been courting content providers -- from book
> publishers to movie studios to film companies -- to convince
> them to repackage their media to take advantage of a color touch
> screen that’s larger than the 3.5-inch display on the iPhone and
> iPod Touch.
>     Publishers could turn static content -- such as newspapers,
> books and magazine stories -- into interactive experiences, with
> links to videos such as author interviews, photos, audio, Web
> sites and advertising, said Kathryn Huberty, an analyst with
> Morgan Stanley in New York.
>
>                        ‘Willing to Pay’
>
>     The companies are betting that customers, accustomed to
> free content on the Web, may be willing to pay for what they
> perceive to be premium content.
>     “The iPad is a great new device that opens up tremendous
> growth opportunities for us and other content providers,” Walt
> Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger said after Jobs unveiled the iPad in
> January. “When people have a great experience, they consume
> more of the content they like, whether it be sports, books,
> games, TV or movies -- and they are willing to pay to do so.”
>     Jobs, who co-founded Apple in 1976 as a personal-computer
> maker, says it’s now one of the world’s biggest mobile-device
> companies. Sales of the iPhone and the iPod music player --
> whose technologies figure prominently in the iPad -- together
> accounted for more than half of revenue last quarter.
>     The Macintosh computer, meanwhile, contributed 28 percent
> of Apple’s $15.7 billion in quarterly sales.
>     Expectations for the iPad are high among Apple fans, who
> had dubbed Apple’s previous mobile gadget the “Jesus phone.”
>     “Like the first iPhone, iPad 1.0 is a John the Baptist
> preparing the way of what is to come,” actor Stephen Fry wrote
> in his technology blog. “It’s not just a scaled-up iPhone or a
> scaled-down, multi-touch enhanced laptop -- it is a whole new
> kind of device.”
>
> For Related News and Information:
> Apple earnings: AAPL US <EQUITY> CH1 <GO>
> Apple earnings stories: AAPL US <EQUITY> TCNI ERN <GO>
> Apple product segments: AAPL US <EQUITY> PGEO <GO>
> Apple share price history: AAPL US <EQUITY> GP <GO>
> For top technology stories: TTOP <GO>
>
> --Editors: Jonathan Thaw, Ville Heiskanen
>
> To contact the reporter on this story:
> Connie Guglielmo in San Francisco at +1-415-617-7134 or
> cguglielmo1 () bloomberg net;
> Mary Childs in New York at +1-212-617-6289 or
> Mchilds5 () bloomberg net
>
> To contact the editor responsible for this story:
> Jonathan Thaw at +1-415-617-7168 or jthaw () bloomberg net.



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