Gene Munster, analyst at the US investment banking firm Piper Jaffray, has estimated that as many as 700,000 iPads were sold this weekend (that figure includes pre-orders), more than double his pre-launch forecast. Original predictions for the iPad’s opening-weekend sales ranged from 200,000 to 400,000, depending on which analyst you spoke to. If Munster is correct, that means that the iPad launch is likely to prove significantly more successful than the launch of the original iPhone – it took Apple over 70 days to move 1 million units of the iPhone when it launched in 2007.

Prior to the iPad’s launch on Saturday, research company iSuppli predicted that global sales would hit 7.1 million by the end of 2010, doubling to 14.4 million in 2011, and almost tripling to 20.1 million in 2012.

Amazon announced yesterday that their free Kindle App for iPad, first announced on 22 March, is now available in the App Store, to coincide neatly with today’s US release of the iPad.

Jay Marine, director of Amazon’s Kindle division says, “Kindle for iPad includes all the features customers love about Kindle for iPhone, including a massive selection of over 450,000 books, along with a beautiful new user interface tailored to the look and feel of iPad.”

One of the iPad-specific features is page turn animation, designed to replicate the experience of turning a page in a physical book. Customers will have the option of switching this feature off and opting for “Basic Reading Mode” instead. In addition, readers will be able to dim the iPad’s screen within the app and will have a choice of background colours, font sizes and font colours, to ease eye-strain and make reading easier.

As with the other Kindle apps currently available (for iPhone, iPod touch, Mac and PC), readers will be able to sync their books, last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across devices.

Marine says, “Kindle for iPad is the perfect companion for the millions of customers who already own a Kindle or Kindle DX, and a way for customers around the world to download and enjoy books even if they don’t yet have a Kindle.”

Let the ebook-reader wars begin.

In South Africa, the credit for the development of the certain new services on the mobile platform goes to ordinary people in the lower income brackets who have led the way by adopting, even instigating new ideas to turn the cellphone into a powerful transacting tool.

Compared to a low eight percent fixed internet penetration, South Africa has cellular penetration of a 114 percent. It is clear from the statistics that South Africans have leapfrogged fixed-line telephony and internet in favor of mobile telephony and have called for an increasing array of data services to be delivered to this platform.

This is patently true when it comes to banking and transacting using the mobile phone. To the surprise of the airtime providers, the African continent has witnessed the use of multinational pre-loaded airtime (most notably MTN airtime vouchers) as a type of cross-border grassroots currency, swapped and bartered via sms, and a way to send “money” quickly back to family in other African countries. The informal airtime-economy is an excellent example of the organic development of technology by ordinary people to meet their transactional needs in contexts where credit cards and banking facilities are lacking.

Meet MiMoney

mimoney works essentially like preloaded airtime, or, in other words, converts cash into an electronic currency that can be used to make purchases in a secure and controllable manner. The currency is free to buy, free to get and free to keep, so a R100 note converts into exactly R100 mimoney to be used online, with no leakage or transaction fees incurred. (more…)

Check out this Youtube video featuring the Motorola Droid Android 2.0 head to head against the iPhone 3GS.

Nudjit is the brain child of Nic Haralambous who approached Justin Hartman and Gregor Rohrig to collaborate on a locally flavoured gadget blog. All three founders are devoted gadget geeks (check out the ‘gadgets we use’ page) and hence Nudjit was born.

If you look at global trends some of the most popular websites around the world are gadget and tech blogs and this clearly proves there is a market for a blog that covers gadget reviews in South Africa. Coupled with the fact that South African consumers don’t have a single independent resource to get objective reviews from which opened a market they could tap into.

South Africans love gadgets but not every gadget in the world will work in South Africa. Nudjit reviews, often harshly, how these cool new toys relate to our local market and try to give consumers information that they can’t find elsewhere. Will Nudjit be a success? They’re certainly on the right track with all the crucial blogging startup elements in place – good writers, better design and a proven topic.

Some of the topics Nudjit covers is audio and visual, computing, photography, tech videos and Apple software. The blog uses the popular open source blogging platform – WordPress – which is put so good use with an awesome design.

Finally, the latest tech news from Afrigator also streams onto the Nudjit homepage.

Thanks must go out to Justin for sending me the scoop on Nudjit.

Microsoft will hold a event on Tuesday in Redmond to herald the second generation of Zune music players, Bandwidth Blog has learned.

According to sources close to the situation, both Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Design and Development chief J Allard will be on hand for the event. The main part of the announcement will center around the players, which will include the first flash memory based Zunes.

About 2.4 million next-generation Zunes will be manufactured during the 2007 holiday season, according to reports. Two-thirds of these players are expected to be flash-based, showing that Microsoft is indeed aware of the much higher popularity of flash players, which are cheaper.

Currently, Microsoft sells approximately one Zune for every 25 iPods but the company is committed to increasing their market-share.

Other Zune news:

Zune phone to come – iZune?

Microsoft get it wrong with the Zune

Recently Apple introduced the iPod Touch. It’s essentially an iPhone without the phone gizmos, and without the speakers and built-in microphone. $299 buys you an 8GB sytem, complete with all the iPhone-like touchy goodness you’ve come to know and want. $399 buys you a 16 GB model with which is still relatively small storage for a media player.

The iTouch includes built-in WiFi so you can use Safari and YouTube on-the-go as well as make purchases from the iTunes Store. (the iPhone will offer the same ability later this month). Its main button bar offers direct access to Music (great icon), Videos (ugly icon) and Photos (same old icon), as well as the new iTunes WiFi store.

The specifications as listed on Apple’s website are:

* Screen material: glass
* Screen size: 8.9 cm (3.5 in)
* Screen resolution: 480×320 pixels at 163 ppi
* Input method: Multi-touch screen interface
* Operating System: OS X
* Storage: 8 or 16 GB Flash memory
* Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
* Built-in rechargeable, non-removable battery with up to 5 hours of video playback, and up to 22 hours of audio playback
* Size: 110×61.8×8 mm (4.3×2.4×0.31 in)
* Weight: 120 g (4.2 oz)

The iPod touch has a lower amount of storage space, compared to the lower-priced flagship iPod classic, due to flash memory limitations.

More photos and video clip after the jump (more…)

Seventy four days out from launch, Apple has sold 1 million iPhones—smack dab on target with recent analyst predictions that the iPhone would surpass the mil mark by Sept. 30. In a press release, Steve Jobs said that it took nearly two years to sell that many iPods.

Here’s the Apple press release

Apple Sells One Millionth iPhone

CUPERTINO, Calif., Sept. 10 — Apple(R) today announced it sold its one millionth iPhone yesterday, just 74 days after its introduction on June 29. iPhone combines three devices into one-a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, and the best mobile Internet device ever-all based on Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface and pioneering software that allows users to control iPhone with just a tap, flick or pinch of their fingers.

“One million iPhones in 74 days-it took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We can’t wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season.”

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market this year with its revolutionary iPhone.

Related iPhone article(s)

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