(WIRED) -- When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad last January, the biggest surprise wasn't the actual product. (Many shrugged and called the iPad a "bigger iPhone.") It was the price: Just $500. Nobody expected that number, perhaps because Apple has traditionally aimed at the high end of the mobile computer market with MacBooks marked $1,000 and up. And perhaps we were also thrown off because Apple execs repeatedly told investors they couldn't produce a $500 computer that wasn't a piece of junk. But Apple did meet that price, and the iPad isn't junk. The iPad is still the first, and best-selling, product of its kind. Competitors, meanwhile, are having trouble hitting that $500 sweet spot.
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The iPad is still the first, and best-selling, product of its kind
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Apple now has 300 retail stores worldwide selling iPads directly to customers
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Competitors are having trouble beating the iPad widget
"The company can swallow the bitter pill of hardly making any money from @placeholder sales through its retail partners because it can feast off the fat profits it makes when customers buy directly through its retail outlets and the web store," Hiner says.