Apple: record sales for the new iPad

At the same time as the company announced that they would start paying dividends, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the new iPad was selling very well after its launch.

Last Friday saw the launch of the new iPad, the third generation of Apple’s tactile tablet, bringing with it as many promises as its predecessors and a good looking commercial future. While signs to the market (like the queues in front of Apple Stores) are not quite as visible as previous years, other indicators suggest that the tablet should sell very well during its first few days after launch.

This period is often followed by strong sales in North America for the following quarters. A lot of people also believe that the new iPad will be capable of breaking records set at the launch of the iPad 2, especially since the new tablet has been launched in 10 markets at the same time (instead of just the iPad 2’s launch to only the US market), with another twenty following by the end of the month.

Apple still hasn’t provided any figures from the launch, with no press release claiming record sales having been seen. Apple CEO Tim Cook has confirmed that the new iPad saw a record weekend, while at the same time announcing that the company would start paying dividends and would initiate a share buyback.

This was inevitable, due to the company’s circumstances and eventual success of the new iPad (and possibly linked to the very healthy sales of the iPad 2?). Estimations being put forward by analysts have more than a million units of the new iPad being shipped on the first day of its release.