Apple has begun shipping pre-ordered iPads to customers who pre-ordered units towards the early stages of the pre-ordering process, naturally the early shipping doesn't mean that orders will arrive before April 3. The reports come on the same day that an analyst predicted that Apple plans to ship between 8 and 10 million iPads in 2010.
Katy Huberty analyst for Morgan Stanley said in a note that suppliers predicted that Apple would ship between 8 and 10 million iPads before the end of the year. With three million delivered in the months March to May.
Huberty added that a strong iPad debut would see a "significant earnings upside" and new revisions of iPad shipments point towards very strong pre-orders.
"Near-term, we believe iPad will target the sizeable sub-$800 consumer notebook market, which equates to 30 million units in the U.S. and 120 million units globally," Huberty writes. "Medium-term, newly introduced content (books, magazines, video) and iPad-optimized apps could broaden the addressable market and strengthen iPad sales momentum later this year."
Over the weekend MacStories.net published a video (below) of the iPad App Store being browsed on the iPad simulator.