It Appears Apple Has done it Again

By Gary Kim, Contributing Editor

Apple (News - Alert) prides itself on creating new markets, not just taking market share in existing markets, and, at a minimum, expects to transform virtually any market it enters. That doesn't mean Apple always succeeds. Lots of products Apple has brought to market have flopped. Newton, Lisa and Apple TV are among them.

The iPod, iPhone (News - Alert) are examples of breakthrough products that either created a whole new market or reshaped an existing market. It is starting to look as though iPad might be another success on this scale. What remains to be seen is whether the iPad is an 'iPod' type device, creating a whole new market, or 'just' an iPhone type device that transforms an existing business (PCs).

You can hardly argue with the numbers: the iPad alrady has sold more than a million units in the United States since its launch, is expected to sell 1.7 milion units from April to June and perhaps five million globally by the end of 2010, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal.

The iPad now has gone on sale in nine countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Since going on sale, Apple has had trouble keeping up with demand, forcing the company to push back the international launch by a month.

In one sense, it no longer seems to matter whether the tablet PC is 'merely' a new form factor for PCs or a brand-new consumer electronics category, though it will be more important if in fact a new category now is coming into existence. The reason is that there always is more profit for suppliers and more change of user experience when a new category can be created or uncovered.

Either way, it is starting to look as though Apple will be the first manufacturer to prove the existence of a durable market for tablet computing, likely will reshape the e-book reader market, and most importantly, might have created yet another new consumer electronics market, as it did with the iPod, after reshaping the mobile phone market with the iPhone.

Just as with the iPhone, overseas markets are expected to comprise a significant share of overall iPad sales,  says Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray analyst. The U.S. market, for example, likely contributes about a third of Apple's overall iPhone sales, with the rest coming from overseas.

(source: http://australia.tmcnet.com/topics/australia/articles/86822-it-appears-apple-has-done-it-aga.htm)