Apple sells 300,000 iPads on launch day in US

Paul Nesbitt

Apple said it sold 300,000 iPads on launch day in the US. The 300,000 iPads sold included devices that had been pre-ordered, sales in retail outlets and shipments by Apple to resellers.

The iPad is due to be available in the UK by 'late April' according to Apple.

The brisk sales for the iPad has prompted some analysts to predict sales of 7.1m for the full year (iSuppli) while others remain more cautious: Forrester Research predicts first year sales of 3 million iPads, while Piper Jaffray is predicting sales of 5.5 million units.

Apple is known to be working on version 4.0 of the iPhone OS, which also runs on the iPad. Industry insiders are predicting that Apple will introduce multitasking for third party applications with iPhone OS 4.0, an ability which is already available on Android phones. Apple has in the past cited security and battery life worries for the lack of multitasking.

The next iPhone will also enjoy hardware upgrades, which are expected to include a 5 megapixel camera (rather than today's 3 megapixel one) and even a second camera facing the user, so that the iPhone can do video conferencing.

The iPhone is also likely to catch up with the competition and offer an 800 by 480 pixel touchscreen, which would an improvement on its current 480 by 320 pixel display.