Apple Sells Three Million iPads in Three Days (But How Many Were minis?)

Apple announced Monday that it sold three million iPads in the three days after the Friday launch of its new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad – doubling the previous first weekend milestone of 1.5 million Wi-Fi only models of the third generation iPad sold in March. The Wi-Fi + Cellular versions of both iPad mini and fourth generation iPad will ship in a few weeks in the US and in many more countries later this year.

What Apple didn’t reveal was how that three million broke between the 4th-gen full-size iPad and its new smaller sibling. However, CNET’s Shara Tibken reports (http://goo.gl/GZnVY) that Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is estimating, based on online surveys showing that roughly nine out of every 10 customers was waiting for the iPad mini rather than a full-sized iPad, that Apple would have sold 2 million to 2.5 million iPad minis, much higher than his previous estimate of 1 million to 1.5 million.

“Customers around the world love the new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO in the Apple release. “We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis. We’re working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand.”

The new iPad mini features a 7.9-inch touchscreen display, FaceTime HD and iSight cameras, “ultrafast” wireless performance, and a claimed 10 hours of battery life.

The new fourth-generation iPad features a 9.7-inch Retina display, a new Apple-designed A6X chip that’s benchmarking twice as fast (http://goo.gl/zGdeM) as the A5X SoC used in the 3rd-gen iPad, a FaceTime HD camera and ultrafast wireless performance.

Both iPad mini and the new fourth generation iPad with Retina display are available in 34 countries including the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and the UK, and will be available in many more countries later this year, including mainland China. Apple says demand for iPad mini exceeded the initial supply and while many of the pre-orders have been shipped to customers, some are scheduled to be shipped later this month.

iPad mini with Wi-Fi comes in either white & silver or black & slate, and is available in the US for a suggested retail price of $329 for the 16GB model, $429 for the 32GB model and $529 for the 64GB model. Fourth generation iPad with Wi-Fi models are available in black or white for a suggested retail price of $499 for the 16GB model, $599 for the 32GB model and $699 for the 64GB model. Both iPad mini and fourth generation iPad are available from the Apple Online Store (http://www.apple.com), Apples retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

iPad mini with Wi-Fi + Cellular and fourth generation iPad with Wi-Fi + Cellular will be available in the US on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon in a few weeks. iPad mini with Wi-Fi + Cellular will be offered for a suggested retail price of $459 for the 16GB model, $559 for the 32GB model and $659 for the 64GB model. Fourth generation iPad with Wi-Fi + Cellular for AT&T, Sprint and Verizon will be offered for a suggested retail price of $629 for the 16GB model, $729 for the 32GB model and $829 for the 64GB model. Additionally, iPad 2 is available at $399 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and just $529 for the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G model where they are sold now.

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**Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.