Seventy-four. Techies, scratch that number into the back of your Macbook. Spray paint it onto the highway overpasses in San Jose. Tattoo it to your bicep, just under the smartphone holster. It’s the number every new super gadget must beat.
Since the iPhone reached 1 million units sold in 74 days, that number has become the new benchmark for game-changing devices. On Tuesday, mobile analytics company Flurry declared the Google's Nexus One a disappointment because it only sold 135,000 units in 74 days. The flop is surprising since the Motorola Droid, a less-advanced device, actually beat the iPhone by selling 1.05 million devices by Day 74.
The next question on every techy’s mind, of course, is whether the iPad can hit the benchmark. And where there’s speculation, there’s betting.
The oddmakers at Costa Rican sportsbook company YouWager.com are allowing consumers to place bids on how long they think it will take for iPad sales to reach 1,000,000 units.
At the moment, the experts are leaning towards “no way;” they’ve set a 72% chance that it’ll take more than 74 days. If that $499 iPad sticker price has left your wallet feeling thin, you can try to make it back betting against the odds at YouWager. Here are the details:
Time for iPad to reach 1,000,000 units sold from first date of sale (March 12).Although the iPad sold an impressive 150,000 units in the first 72 hours, that’s still far behind the iPhone, which had reached 270,000 in about half that time.
Over 74 days -250 (72%)
Under 74 days +125 (44%)
The +/- Indicates the Return on the Wager. For Example: Betting on the candidate least likely to win would earn the most amount of money, should that happen. The percentage is the likelihood the contestant(s) will win.
Youwager, located in San Jose, Costa Rica, is a government-regulated Sportsbook and online casino, with over 200 employees. It was founded in 1994 and is a subsidiary of sportsbooking company First Fidelity.
Great story. I know that quickly moving units and getting share are critical in this space. But the Droid subsidies effectively gave it a lower price, I think, than the Nexus One. Also, I think the ads running with claims of "From just $179" were a little misleading, since most people that didn't want to switch to T-mobile were looking at almost three times that amount ($529) to get one.