According to analysts, Apple Inc. sold close to 1 million units of its next-generation tablet computer during its debut weekend. In comparison to the original version of the iPad, which launched in April of 2010, which crossed the one-million mark 28 days after its launch, the iPad 2 is already leaps ahead. The iPad 2 went on sale in the United States on Friday evening at Apple Stores, AT&T and Verizon Wireless stores, as well as Target, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy stores – all greeted by thousands of eager customers. Brian White, an analyst at Ticonderoga Securities, said it was difficult to find an iPad 2 over the weekend. “Our field checks over the weekend indicate that the iPad 2 sold out at every Apple and non-Apple store we contacted,” White wrote in a research note. “In fact, all the stores had worked through iPad 2 inventory by Saturday afternoon, and there were no new iPad 2 deliveries on Sunday.” “We would not be surprised to see Apple sell closer to 1 million iPad2s in the opening weekend,” said Wedbush Securities analyst Scott Sutherland. Best Buy on Friday said some of its outlets ran out of the tablet and its accessories within 10 minutes. Regarding buyer breakdown, Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry believes 60% of iPad 2 buyers were upgrading from last year’s model and the remaining 40% were first-time iPad buyers — and he believes 100% of iPad 2 buyers own at least one other Apple product. Chowdhry also thinks people preferred AT&T’s 3G model over Verizon Wireless’ iPad 2 because AT&T has better customer service (hearing this was a bit of a surprise). It would make more sense if you bought the iPad 2 with AT&T for faster service and an unlocked-SIM but either way, we are glad to see many users got their hands on the better version of the iPad 2. Stay tuned for more news on iPad 2 by following us on Twitter and/or by subscribing to our RSS Feed. [Source: Reuters] Authors:

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