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AT&T opening weekend iPad Air activations up 200% over last year’s launch

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While we haven’t received first weekend sales numbers from Apple yet, AT&T has just released a statement on iPad activations noting that it witnessed a 200% increase in iPad activations compared with last year’s launch:

“iPad activations on AT&T increased more than 200% over the past three days compared to last year’s launch weekend, driven by consumer excitement around the new iPad Air and the popularity of AT&T Mobile Share, which lets customers add an iPad to their existing data plan for just $10 a month.  We also saw strong demand for AT&T Next, which offers customers an iPad for $0 down on the nation’s fastest and most reliable 4G LTE network.”

Apple hasn’t announced official numbers for its new iPad Air. It could perhaps be waiting for the iPad mini with Retina display to go on sale for that, as last year the company announced combined first weekend sales of three million units for the iPad mini and fourth generation iPad. Those three million units didn’t include cellular models, however, which didn’t ship initially alongside WiFi only models with AT&T’s launch taking place weeks later. The three million units beat out Apple’s previous record of 1.5 million Wi-Fi only units of the iPad 3, which was the last iPad launch that included just one new device.

We’ve confirmed AT&T’s 200% number is referring to the iPad 4 and iPad mini launch, not iPad 3, which is slightly unfair given the fact cellular models of those devices had a soft launch weeks after Apple’s opening weekend of sales of WiFi models.

Earlier today, we reported that Fiksu has been tracking iPad Air adoption over its first weekend of sales and found overall adoption to be outpacing iPad 4 and iPad mini launches from last year by approximately four to one. 

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Comments

  1. PMZanetti - 10 years ago

    Myself being one that picked up an iPad Air, through AT&T NEXT, and added it to my Mobile Share plan. Great freakin deal.

  2. Simon Potts (@simoncbp) - 10 years ago

    Interesting – however at best an academic comparison, as like isn’t being compared with like.

    The iPad Air was released 12 months after the release of both the iPad 4 and iPad Mini – as such its market had sufficient time, gain a minimum cost effective use before upgrading (allowing for some consumers who like to upgrade every 12 months).

    However if one looks at the 1st weekend activations in 2012 – whilst the iPad Mini was a new product, the iPad 4 was replacing a model which had only been released 7 months earlier – as such significantly reducing the appetite for those wishing to upgrade annually.

  3. Tim Jr. - 10 years ago

    They said in the Annual stock holders call numbers would not be announced until after holidays.. (January)..

  4. jinent - 10 years ago

    I really like the iPad Air, I thin alot of people waited for the new design with slimmer bezels. I wonder how t-mobile is performing with their activations since you can pay month to month rather than all upfront. http://knowtifier.com/news/800/att-ipad-air-activations-up-200-over-last-years/

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.