Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is winning. I mean really winning, not "winning" in the Carlos Estevez sense of the word.
Reuters says the Mac maker appears to have sold more than 1 million iPad 2 tablets over the weekend. Sell-outs were common at both Apple retail stores and Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) outlets as cultic masses clamored for the latest iThing.
No doubt the early figures are impressive. More impressive, though, is who was buying the device. According to a survey conducted by research firm Piper Jaffray, 70% of those buying the iPad 2 were new to the device.
"Typically demand on Apple product launch days is driven by upgrades, but our data suggests Apple is gaining new iPad users vs. upgrading existing ones," analyst Gene Munster wrote in a research note obtained by eWeek, which reported on the survey.
To be fair, Munster and his team surveyed just 236 shoppers in line and the small sample size could dramatically skew the results. Regardless, it still appears that at least half of those purchasing the iPad 2 were new to the tablet experience.
Piper Jaffray's findings may help to explain why shares of Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI) are down more than 3% as of this writing. Moto's competing Xoom tablet was thought to be a compelling, if high-priced, iPad alternative for those who hadn't already purchased a tablet. But now that Apple is using the iPad 2 to convert the unconverted, this thesis no longer looks as promising as it once did.
Do you agree? Disagree? Let us know what you think about Apple's tablet strategy, the iPad 2, and what competitors might do next using the comments box below.
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