- With sizable promotions/discounts from top retailers providing a lift, all signs suggest U.S. iPad (AAPL +2.1%) sales over Thanksgiving and Black Friday have been quite healthy.
- Wal-mart says it sold 1.4M tablets overall on Thanksgiving, and that the iPad Mini (bundled with a $100 Wal-mart gift card) was a top seller. eBay says it was selling iPads at a rate of one unit per second as of midnight.
- Meanwhile, Target offered $100 gift cards to iPad Air buyers, and Best Buy offered $50 and $100 discounts, respectively, for the Air and iPad 2. Today, Apple's online store is offering gift card promos for iPads, MacBooks, and other hardware.
- Even as global tablet shipments surged, Apple's iPad sales fell 13% Y/Y in the Sep. quarter, and 27% in the June quarter. Apple is counting on its iPad refreshes to reverse the trend in the Dec. quarter, albeit while maintaining its premium pricing strategy in the face of strong competition from much cheaper Android tablets.