Apple announces iPad sales top 1 million in less than a month

Apple's new iPad reached one million sales last Friday, the day the iPad 3G launched, and just 28 days after the hardware was introduced on April 3.

"One million iPads in 28 days — that's less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, in a statement released Monday. "Demand continues to exceed supply and we're working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers."

The company revealed that iPad users have already downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store and over 1.5 million e-books from the new iBookstore.

There are also more than 5,000 new applications created specifically for the iPad, in addition to more than 200,000 applications on the App Store written for the iPhone and iPod touch.

The normally tight-lipped company has given numerous updates on sales figures for the iPad in its first month of availability. The Wi-Fi-only model, released on April 3, sold more than 300,000 in its first day alone.

Just 5 days after the iPad launched, Apple revealed that more than 450,000 were sold, and users had downloaded more than 3.5 million applications for the device. In less than a week, the iPad sold more than a half-million in the U.S. alone. Sales have been so strong that Apple was forced to delay the international launch of the device until late May.

Apple officials have said that they were caught off guard by unexpectedly strong sales of the iPad. Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said during the company's quarterly earnings conference call that initial sales of the multi-touch device had "far exceeded" the company's expectations.

Apple did not provide a breakdown of Wi-Fi-only vs. 3G sales, but one analyst revealed on Sunday that a survey of 50 stores revealed most were sold out of both models. The poll found that the newly released iPad 3G was sold out at 49 of 50 surveyed retail stores by Sunday.

That led analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray to accurately predict that Apple sold more than a million iPads, and admit that his previous forecast of 1.3 million sales in the June quarter may be conservative. Munster has forecast that the Wi-Fi iPad will be the best-selling model, taking 60 percent of sales, with the 3G-capable hardware and its $130 premium carrying 40 percent of overall sales.

Apple's million milestone was reached solely with domestic sales of the hardware. Both the Wi-Fi and 3G models will launch later this month in the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Australia, Italy, Japan, Span and Switzerland. Preorders for international markets will begin on Monday, May 10.