Apple iPad update: 1,000,000 sold, international pre-orders just beginning

Apple's iPad certainly made a splash when it was announced in January, but critics wondered if the masses would truly find a use for this new form factor device. But less than a month after sales opened in the US 1,000,000 iPads were sold, and international pre-orders have only just begun. Does Apple still have to defend its product, or do the numbers speak for themselves?

The iPad was revealed to the world in late January with all the typical sort of Steve Jobs mumbo jumbo (words like automagically come to mind) and more hype than anybody knew what to do with. Remarkable the tablet surely was, but a surefire hit? When it had no camera, no Flash capabilities, no multitouch, no USB port... didn't people need these things? A million sales later, perhaps that question is answered.

According to an Apple press release from May 3rd, it took 28 days for the millionth sale to be completed, notably less than the 74 it took to reach similar numbers for the popular iPhone. Of course, Apple and the iPad have ridden the popularity of the iPhone to this success, much as the iPhone rode the success of the iPod to its own fame (a quick eyeball of this chart suggests that selling the first million iPods was more a matter of months or years than days or weeks). But that's not a huge knock against Apple - they have earned their reputation, and it's just good PR.

Sales begin internationally on May 28th, and pre-orders have already begun pouring in as of yesterday. We may yet see another million sales or more by month's end.

While I'd love to play around with one, I still don't know what people are using these iPads for beyond eReading (which several people I know have purchased one for). While it's certainly handier than a laptop for reading or browsing documents, it needs to do more than that for me before I can justify its cost. I seem to remember Steve Jobs saying something about how it does things we don't even know we want to do, but I have enough trouble budgeting for the things I already know I want to do - in terms of both time and money. If you're using an iPad out there, I'd love to hear your story of how you're liking it. One way or another though, it's clear the iPad has been a great success for Cupertino so far.