Apple pre-sells estimated 50,000 iPads in first 2 hours

As we reported earlier, Apple started taking pre-orders for the Apple iPad starting at 8:30 am Eastern time today. Users of the AAPL Sanity board at Investors Village took their pre-order number and cracked the code to make an estimate that Apple had received 50,000 pre-orders for the tablet in the first 2 hours. The estimate is based on the Cupertino based company receiving  pre-orders for 25,000 units per hour. Sales could have been higher as according to Apple Insider, pre-orders to business customers are being limited to two units per sale due to supply constraints.

Apple had to redesign its web page to accept the pre-orders. The iPad bumped Apple TV from the first page and also added information on signing up for 3G services from AT&T for the device. The initial model of the iPad to be shipped April 3rd will be Wi-Fi enabled only. Later next month, Apple will rollout the Wi-Fi/3G version of the tablet. For $14.99 a month, you can receive 250MB of data while $30 monthly allows you unlimited data. The service will be offered on a monthly basis with no contract necessary. Emphasis was also placed on the iBooks application. At the same time, while Apple had said that there would be 140,000 applications in the App Store at launch of the iPad, the company announced that there are now 150,000 apps available.

source: Apple, AppleSanityBoard via AppleInsider