Apple has provided no indication so far on how its Apple iPad pre-orders are going but that has not prevented analysts (professional and amateur) from weighing in with their estimates. Among them is Daniel Tello (aka Deagol) who tracks shipment numbers using information provided by users on Investor Village’s AAPL Sanity Board (membership required).
Tello, who has a proven track record, estimates that some 150,000 Apple iPads have been pre-ordered in the first 72 hours. He attributes up to half of those orders to “pure overexcited fanboism” and expects that pre-orders will top out around half a million by launch day (April 3rd). He sees demand leveling out at about 30,000 orders on weekdays and half that on weekends now that the initial rush is over.
Tello also estimates that the Apple iPad could top 1 million sales after two weeks of shipments. This goes against some Wall Street estimates that forecast it would take a year for Apple to record such numbers.