Last week’s launch of the fourth-generation iPad and the iPad mini from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has led to sales of 3 million of the tablets in the three days following the announcement. According to Apple, that’s double the first weekend sales total of the WiFi-only third-generation iPad in March of this year.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said:

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.

Interestingly, Apple says it nearly sold out the iPad mini, but the company does not attach a number to that statement. Such a data point would be useful to let us know just exactly how many of each the company has sold. The Apple online store sold out of the iPad mini very quickly, with the 16-Gbyte white and silver model being the hottest seller.

One estimate of the number of iPad minis available totaled 950,000. If that is correct, the larger iPad is still more popular, unless, of course, customers are spending more for the larger iPad rather than waiting for the mini to become available again.

Apple’s shares are up about 1.3% in the first few minutes of trading this morning at $584.33, in a 52-week range of $363.32 to $705.07.

Paul Ausick

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