Apple has announced that it sold 3 million iPads since the iPad Mini and 4th generation iPad went on sale Friday. That’s 3 million units in 3 days.
The number would be a little more impressive if it didn’t include pre-orders. Apple has been taking orders for its new tablets for a few weeks.
Still, Apple says it sold twice as many iPads this weekend as it did when launching the WiFi-only 3rd generation iPad in March… and that was a record-setting weekend at the time.
The 4th-generation iPad features a 9.7 inch, 2048 x 1536 pixel display, an Apple A6X processor, and a new Lightning connector. It has a starting price of $499.
Apple’s iPad Mini has a 7.9 inch, 1024 x 768 pixel display, an A5 processor, and a starting price of $329.
Right now the WiFi-only versions of the tablets are available. Apple says models with cellular capabilities will be available later this year.
Apple hasn’t broken down how many of each tablet it sold this weekend. But the company is one of the few that actually provides any sort of sales figures like this on a regular basis at all. Asus, on the other hand, has indicated that it’s selling about a million Nexus 7 tablets per month, but we don’t know how many Nexus 7 units have been sold so far.
Meanwhile, research firm IDC reports that Apple’s share of the tablet market is now at 50.4 percent, down from nearly 60 percent during the same period last year.