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Table of Contents

iPad Launch

Category: Science & Technology Key figures: Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ive (design), Apple Inc.

Summary

On January 27, 2010, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the first-generation iPad at a press event in San Francisco, describing it as a “magical and revolutionary device” that occupied a new “third category” of personal computing between smartphones and laptop computers. The Wi-Fi model went on sale in the United States on April 3, 2010, at a starting price of $499; a Wi-Fi + 3G variant followed on April 30.

The first-generation iPad featured a 9.7-inch multi-touch display, Apple’s custom A4 system-on-chip processor, up to 64 GB of storage, and ran a modified version of iPhone OS (later renamed iOS). The device did not support multitasking, a physical keyboard, or a camera in its original form, but it could access Apple’s App Store — already populated with hundreds of thousands of apps designed for the iPhone — from launch day.

Commercial uptake was immediate and unprecedented for a new product category. Apple sold more than 300,000 units on the first day, reached 1 million sales within 28 days (half the time the original iPhone had required), crossed 3 million by mid-June 2010, and sold approximately 15 million units before the iPad 2 replaced it in March 2011. The iPad commanded roughly 83 percent of all tablet computer sales in 2010. Time magazine named it one of the 50 Best Inventions of 2010, and Popular Science included it in their “Best of What’s New 2010” list.

The iPad’s success catalyzed a transformation in consumer electronics. Established manufacturers including Samsung, Motorola, and HP rapidly introduced competing tablets, making the touch-based tablet a mainstream product category. The device also significantly accelerated mobile application development, changed how consumers read news and books, and found widespread adoption in enterprise, education, and healthcare settings. As of 2022, Apple had sold more than 670 million iPads, cementing the company’s position as the dominant tablet computer vendor.

Significance

The iPad launch of 2010 established the modern tablet computer as a viable and mass-market product category, succeeding where earlier tablet attempts (Microsoft’s Tablet PC initiative in the early 2000s) had failed. By combining an established app ecosystem, intuitive multi-touch interaction, a competitive price point, and Apple’s brand, the iPad created an entirely new market segment and triggered a restructuring of the personal computing industry. It accelerated the shift from desktop and laptop computing toward mobile, touch-based devices, influenced how media companies delivered digital content, and demonstrated that consumers would pay for curated, integrated hardware-software experiences. The iPad also marked Steve Jobs’s final major product category launch before his death in October 2011.

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