The iPad’s $500 starting price was lower than people expected, but Apple could still make price cuts if the device fails to gain traction among consumers, says an analyst. Recounting his meeting with Apple executives, Bill Shope of Credit Suisse said Apple indicated it would consider lowering prices if initial demand appears to be slow. “While it remains to be seen how much traction the iPad gets initially, management noted that it will remain nimble (pricing could change if the company is not attracting as many customers as anticipated),” Shope wrote. If Apple did make price cuts shortly after the iPad launch, it would be reminiscent of the original iPhone release. Apple sold the original 8GB iPhone for $600 when it hit stores in June 2007; two months later, the company dropped the price to $400. Wall Street analysts estimate Apple will sell between 1 million and 5 million iPads in its first year. Charlie Wolf with Needham & Company said that because Apple is defining a new category of devices, sales of the iPad are likely to ramp slowly, but “the $500 starting price point is low enough to attract a sizable portion of the early adopter crowd, consisting of iPhone and iPod owners.” Source: The Wall Street Journal