iPad mini ad impressions growing 28% per day, outperforms last year's Kindle Fire

In a study tracking device impressions within the first month of a product's sales, Millennial Media saw the iPad mini net a daily growth of 28 percent, trouncing Amazon's Kindle Fire which saw a 19 percent daily growth rate over the same period last year.

Just as in 2011, many electronic devices will be sitting under Christmas trees worldwide, waiting to be unwrapped, but the initial user base has already made an impact on the advertising firm's platform.

"Every holiday season there seems to be one particular item that stands out as the 'must have gift' of the year, and in 2012, early figures lead us to believe that this could be the iPad mini," writes Millennial Media SVP of Global Monetization Solutions Matt Gillis. "Truth be told, don’t tell my kids but there are already two sitting under our tree at home."

From the data, the firm expects the overall number of tablet-using consumers will significantly increase without cannibalizing sales of other tablets. Citing a November report from Nielsen, the ad company notes a strong interest from children for both the full-size iPad and iPad mini, illustrating the smaller tablet is more likely to add new users than take away from the existing an potential user base.

Another takeaway from the mini's strong out-of-the-gate performance is consumer demand for tablets of multiple sizes. The firm sees the success of the smaller iPad as confirmation of high interest from users looking to engage with tablets of various sizes, a trend first established by devices like Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire.

The forward-looking estimate is in line with a November report that saw the iPad mini taking a sizable chunk out of the PC market while leaving the existing full-size model largely untouched.

Apple debuted the iPad mini at a special event in October, and immediately saw high demand as preorders for all available models sold out within hours of going live. The company later announced three million iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad units were sold over the two tablets' launch weekend.

It was reported last week that supply was finally catching up with demand as U.S. shipment dates for the device improved for the first time since launch.