3 Million iPads Sold in 3 Days

Monday that it sold 3 million iPads in the three-day weekend since sales of the iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad began Friday morning.

The company did not offer details about how many of each model it sold, although the vast majority of customers who queued up on Friday were buying the mini. “We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis,” CEO Tim Cook said. “We’re working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand.”

According to the press release, 3 million units is double the previous first weekend milestone of 1.5 million set by the third generation iPad in March. Analyst forecasts of how many iPad minis the company would sell ranged from 800,000 to 3 million, with one analyst predicting that Wall Street would punish the stock if Apple sold fewer than 3 million.
Apple shares, which had been down as much as $3 in pre-market trading, quickly jumped to more than $8 higher.