Apple iPad adoption rate: fastest ever, surpassing DVD player

Apple's iPad has sold over 3 million units in 80 days with a current sales rate of 4.5 million units per quarter. This is surpassing the adoption rate of the DVD player.

Bernstein Research has detailed the staggering success of the iPad with an early adoption rate surpassing the iPhone (1 million in first quarter) and even the DVD player which only sold 350,000 units in the first year.

‘The iPad did not seem destined to be a runaway product success straight out of the box,' said Colin McGranahan, retail analyst at Bernstein Research, in a note. “By any account, the iPad is a runaway success of unprecedented proportion.”

John Melloy a reporter for CNBC said: “At this current rate, the iPad will pass gaming hardware and the cellular phone to become the 4th biggest consumer electronics category with estimated sales of more than $9 billion in the U.S. next year, according to Bernstein. TVs, smart phones and notebook PCs are the current three largest categories.”

KitGuru says: We would however expect the growth rate to level out slightly over the coming months.

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