Forrester predicts Apple will sell 3 million iPads this year

In a recent posting on Sarah Rotman Epps blog, Epps says that Forrester Research expects Apple to sell three million iPads this year. As mentioned in a previous posting, Forrester also expects six million e-readers to be sold this year or double the number of iPads. Epps notes that the estimate is conservative because they believe the iPad is the right device for the wrong consumer and there is a “fundamental disconnect between the design of the device and the profile of the customer who would most benefit from using it.” The iPad could be a great device for casual PC users but the hardware forces users to buy special docks or rely on a wireless connection to move content on and off of the device. Mainstream consumers may not be familiar with this so Apple will need to teach consumers a new way of computing in order to sell more devices. Epps points out that it is the cultural impact, rather than the number of devices sold, that will be truly significant this year. “It may be only 3 million people that buy the iPad this year, but the number that will reimagine how they use devices will be far greater. And that will be the lasting impact of the iPad. In three years, we’ll look back and marvel not at how many units Apple sold, but at the way Apple changed computing. The iPad may not have GPS (at least in the WiFi-only version), but it’s a road map for where computing is going: Curated, cloud-based experiences that are visual and tactile.”