The Apple iPad doesn’t need a formal introduction, it’s the gold standard by which all other tablets will be compared and its launch was one of the most anticipated events so far this year.

Officially, the iPad went on sale on Friday via pre-orders on the Apple website. Day 1 sales could only be considered a success with roughly 120,000 tablets sold. The biggest seller was the WiFi version of the iPad. This was something that AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson predicted and could be attributed to consumers not wanting to pay the higher retail cost of the 3G iPad and the accompanying monthly service plan that would go along with it, especially when free WiFi access is readily accessible in many homes and through hotspots at local coffee shops and the likes.

Also of note was iPad sales amongst the three models, 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB were about even so cost was not the only consideration that drove the customer decision making process as value and features played an equally important role.

Apple executives will no doubt be pleased with the sales figures for first day sales which resulted in an additional $75 million in the Apple coffers and the numbers have to say a lot about the Apple brand considering that the vast majority of consumers have probably never even used a tablet computer before.

Via: Slashgear, Hardwaresphere