3-Month Sales Report: iPad Goes iBoom

License To Print Money

If there was any doubt, the first quarter of iPAD sales has exceeded beyond the industry's wildest expectations. CNET NEWS reports that in a note to investors, BERNSTEIN RESEARCH analyst COLIN MCGRANAHAN called the iPAD a "runaway success of unprecedented proportion."

Consider:

* APPLE sold 3 million iPADS over the first 80 days and an estimated 4.5 million over the three months ending in SEPTEMBER,

* The iPAD is due to capture around $12 billion in global sales for the year; MCGRANAHAN predicts sales of almost $20 billion next year, with around $9 billion in the U.S. alone. (In comparison, the entire U.S. consumer PC market, which takes in sales of around $25 billion annually, and the U.S. notebook/Netbook market sees sales of around $19 billion a year.)

* BERNSTEING estimates sales of more than $9 billion in the U.S. alone next year, which would make the iPad the fourth-largest consumer electronics category -- ahead of gaming hardware and cell phones and behind TVs, smartphones and notebooks.

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