One thing you can usually rely on with an Apple product is a good resale value. I've seen this time and time again with Macs, iPhones and the iPad. With 15 million iPads out there already there will be a lot of selling and buying going on during March and April. The fact that you can get probably 60 or even 70 percent of your original investment back after a year is a strong incentive to update; and there is no doubt that there are millions more Apple aspirants out there who are only too happy to snap up the first-generation tablets.
Last week Computerworld reported that Gazelle, the US-based on-line buyer, had 2,000 iPad sale requests on Wednesday. While this brought down asking prices – a working 16 GB model started the day at $375 and ended at $300 – the expectation was that demand for the used devices would drive up values again by the weekend. These are the sort of residuals that other tablet manufacturers, particularly of the new crop of Android devices, will only dream of for a long time to come. The Apple ecosystem, with its 200-million credit cards and vast stock of apps for sale, can only get stronger in 2011.