The historical March 13, 2010 URL contains a claim of about 120,000 iPads sold during the first preorder day. That number should be treated as the claim in an old headline, not as an independently confirmed Apple sales figure. The source and method behind that particular estimate have not been established in this replacement article.
A later official number is available
On April 5, Apple reported more than 300,000 US iPads sold as of midnight April 3. The company specified that its total included delivered preorders, deliveries to channel partners and Apple retail sales. This is a dated company statement with an explicit scope.
Why the two figures are not directly comparable
A preorder estimate concerns orders inferred or counted before delivery. A launch-day total may include several distribution channels and earlier orders delivered on that date. The periods differ, and the meaning of “sold” can differ too. Subtracting one from the other would not reliably reveal the number of people who walked into a shop.
Likewise, a number based on observed order identifiers needs assumptions about what those identifiers represent. Without the method, it is difficult to judge whether the estimate covers one country, all models or completed orders.
Read launch numbers with a checklist
Ask who supplied the figure, what date range it covers and whether it counts orders, shipments, activations or sales to end users. Preserve qualifiers such as “estimated” and “more than” when summarizing it. They are part of the information, not disposable wording.
The first iPad launch remains an important app-platform event. It does not require turning an unverified preorder estimate into a fact. This article keeps the old headline’s subject while directing readers to the later official report and explaining its limits.