Neonpunch roundup: All about Apple, iPhones and iPads

The word of the day is "i".

Apple sells an estimated 120,000 iPads on day 1 of PRE-ORDER!

How many iPhones are in China? Over 1.5 million. 450,000 are those are official. Where will Apple open their stores in China?

Even with a limit of two-per order and only available in the United States the iPad hit 120,000 orders on Friday and by now is probably near 1 million for a product no one has actually even seen!

Customers preferred the cheaper WiFi version (the 3G one doesn’t ship until the end of April.) Orders were split over the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models. Apple made US$75million in one day on a product no one can touch yet. Downside -- Asia iPad release dates have been filed in the "later in the year" category which means parallel importing will be going crazy for the waiting period.

Read more about what else to expect when/if you get your iPad here: neonpunch.com/ipad-pre-order

China's iPhone uptake

iPhonAsia.com's creator sat down with us to talk iPhone's in China and we learned that:

The uptake of the “official” China Unicom iPhone has been modest. The last leak from a China Unicom source (end of December 2009) revealed that about 300,000 official iPhones had sold since the October 30, 2009 launch. China Unicom has recently stepped up iPhone marketing, and so it's merely an educated guess that China Unicom has passed 450,000 units so far, pacing it at around 90,000 iPhone’s per month.

Which, in China, could be considered a flop.

What are the Chinese doing on their iPhone? A quick look at the China App Store and you can see they are downloading that same diabolical app that the rest of the world is: Plants vs Zombies!

Apple stores! Forward march!

24 new Apple Stores will be opening across China. The mainland cities and actual store locations have not yet been revealed by Apple (other than Shanghai); however, it’s a safe bet that Apple is looking at locations in Beijing (in addition to Sanlitun), Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xi’an, Chengdu, Tianjin and Hong Kong -- which is supposedly going to feature a 40-foot tall, circular entrance, possibly made of glass and surrounded by a narrow moat of water.

Once inside, visitors will descend into an underground store, much like the existing Fifth Avenue (NYC) store. Construction on the store could begin soon, with a grand opening possibly to be held in 2010.

Read the Neonpunch.com two-part interview here and here.