Apple sells 3M iPads in 80 days

Apple announced yesterday that it has sold three million iPads in the 80 days since launch, up from the two million sales it boasted at the end of May. Significantly, that equates to one million sales in the last three weeks alone. “People are loving iPad as it becomes a part of their daily lives,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in a statement. “We’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more people around the world, including those in nine more countries next month.” Apple claims developers have created over 11,000 specific iPad applications, whilst the touchscreen tablet computer will also run “almost all of the more than 225,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone or iPod touch.” The iPad, a 9.7-inch touchscreen tablet computer intended primarily for games, Web browsing and digital media of all sorts, is now expected by analysts to ship up to 10 million units worldwide by the end of the calendar year, which would translate into at least US$4 billion of revenue. “We as well as the Street continue to underestimate demand for iPad,” noted Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu. “”Part of the reason is that the iPad, as a tablet, is a relatively new product category where it fits in between a smartphone and a notebook PC.” Apple’s iPad success comes as its iPhone 4 – available from tomorrow – is also shaping up to be a blockbuster. The company took preorders for more than 600,000 of the devices on its first day of availability, while operators such as AT&T and SoftBank have had to stop taking advance orders because of inventory issues and unexpectedly high demand. Indeed, AT&T does not expect to have supply in its retail stores until June 29, as it will give priority to pre-orders.