New iPad Sales Top 3 Million in Under 4 Days

Apple announced today that it has sold 3 million new iPads in less the four days of availability, calling it the "strongest iPad launch yet."

CUPERTINO, California―March 19, 2012―Apple® today announced it has sold three million of its incredible new iPad®, since its launch on Friday, March 16. The new iPad features a stunning new Retina™ display, Apple’s new A5X chip with quad-core graphics, a 5 megapixel iSight® camera with advanced optics for capturing amazing photos and 1080p HD video, and still delivers the same all-day 10 hour battery life* while remaining amazingly thin and light. iPad Wi-Fi + 4G supports ultrafast 4G LTE networks in the US and Canada, and fast networks around the world including those based on HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA.**

“The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold―the strongest iPad launch yet,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Customers are loving the incredible new features of iPad, including the stunning Retina display, and we can't wait to get it into the hands of even more customers around the world this Friday.”

Apple didn't announce first weekend sales numbers for the iPad 2 as they were in extremely short supply, but the company sold more than 300,000 of the original iPad on its first day, and it took 28 days to move the first million iPads.

The iPhone 4S sold 4 million units in its first weekend, with a much lower (to the customer) price point and wider availability. Considering the tremendous success Apple has seen with the iPhone 4S, the launch of the iPad 3 was very strong indeed.