Even before it went on sale, the Apple iPad continues to generate news. This time it is the possibility of a battery failure, which cannot be removed by the user, leading to the replacement of the equipment.
The guarantee is made by Apple in a technical support document, cited by several North American media, which states that the battery replacement service costs $ 100 and that the company chooses to replace the iPad, instead of just replacing it the battery. The change will hardly be made by new equipment, which is generating controversy.
Batteries have been one of the main sources of complaints from users of iPhone and MacBooks, who cannot simply change the device when it loses performance or breaks down, as is the case with most other computer and telecommunications equipment.
When launching the iPad, Apple said that the battery lasted 10 hours to surf the Internet with Wi-Fi, watch videos or listen to music, being recharged through the computer’s USB port.
Although it will only arrive in stores on April 3rd, Apple has already opened pre-reservations for users who want to purchase on the iPad, but only in the United States.
According to the accounts of the AAPL Sanity group of Investor Village, on the first day 120 thousand units will have been ordered, an unconfirmed number, but there is already an indication that the enthusiasm will have been significantly reduced in the following days, to an average of around one thousand units per hour.
David Tello, who has been following the Investor Village figures closely, estimates that sales will stabilize at 30,000 units a day, for a total of half a million iPads reserved before April 3.
Editor’s Note: An update was made to include the information that the iPod battery recharges by connecting to the computer’s USB port, which was implied in the phrase «being recharged via the USB port». TeK had already written before that the iPad does not have a USB port, as with the iPhone, but it uses the connector port for connecting to other devices and charging the battery.
