Apple Inc. said the iPad will hit stores next month, a few days later than expected but not enough to rattle investors eager to see how consumers respond to the new device.
The Cupertino, Calif., company said it will first begin selling a version of the iPad that uses Wi-Fi to access the Internet on April 3 in the U.S., while a model that also gets online through wireless carriers’ high-speed 3G networks will go on sale later that month.
Apple’s announcement that iPad pre-orders start on March 12th sent the stock up. The Digits panel discusses how Apple’s stock performed, as compared to when the iPhone launched.
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Reuters
Employees of a New York Apple store that opened in November. The iPad will arrive in shops next month.
Apple will begin taking orders for the iPad from U.S. customers on its Web site March 12.
Apple has said AT&T Inc., its domestic-carrier partner for the iPhone, will supply the 3G wireless service for the iPad in the U.S. But an AT&T spokesman said the iPad won’t be sold in AT&T stores.
Customers in Australia, France, Germany, Japan and other countries will be able to buy the iPad in late April.
When it introduced the iPad in January, Apple said the product would be available in late March. Recently, an analyst report suggested Apple had encountered some production glitches that might delay the release of the iPad and limit quantities of the device that are initially available.
Apple’s announcement that the iPad will come out in early April seemed to reassure investors, sending the company’s shares up $8.24, or 3.9%, to $218.95 on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday.
“Production issues, in my mind, are not days or a week in time,” said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. “Production issues are when things slip by weeks. So I almost see this date as confirmation that there weren’t production delays, and it doesn’t impact any of our numbers.”
An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
It is unclear how many iPad units Apple will have available at launch and whether the introduction will turn into the kind of event that occurred when iPhones first went on sale nearly three years ago, which saw long lines of customers forming in front of stores before it went on sale.
The tablet-shaped iPad, with a large touch-sensing screen for navigating the Internet, watching videos and reading electronic books, is trying to define a new category of technology devices with uncertain market potential, while the iPhone was able to tap into a huge audience of existing cellphone customers.
The iPad, which will come in models priced between $499 and $829, has a 9.7-inch screen, no keyboard and a wireless Internet connection. It is geared for navigating the Web and running software applications that are created by others.
One factor that will affect sales of the iPad is how broadly it will be available in stores.Apple said Friday the iPad will be available for sale through its own retail stores and through Apple retail partners it didn’t name. At an investor conference, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook recently singled out Best Buy Co. as an example of a retail partner likely to carry the iPad.
Write to Nick Wingfield at nick.wingfield@wsj.com
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