May 03, 2010

By By Antony Bruno, Denver

For those wondering if the iPad would take off the way the iPhone did, Apple today answered that question by revealing that it has sold 1 million iPads in less than a month.

By way of comparison, the iPhone took twice as long to reach the same milestone. And if you?re thinking these sales are merely indicative of only the Apple faithful buying up their new toys, two new developments point to additional sales success in the coming months.

First is the introduction Friday of the iPad 3G, which features both WiFi and wireless access to the AT&T network. It?s not clear how many of the 1 million iPads sold were for the initial WiFi-only verion and how many were for the iPad 3G. While more expensive, many fans have indicated their intent to wait for the more versatile iPad 3G before pulling out their wallets. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster this morning estimated that Apple sold 300,000 iPad 3G devices this weekend.

Additionally, the 1 million sales are domestic only. Apple will begin shipping the iPad internationally later this month, opening multiple new markets for new sales.

Apple also said that more iPad users have downloaded more than 12 million apps for the device since it went on sale, and more than 5,000 apps have been created specifically for the iPad. Apple didn?t say how many were paid and how many were free. It also didn?t break out how many of the 12 million downloads were iPad-specific apps or those created for the iPhone which can also run on the iPad.

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