Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is estimating that Apple could have sold between 2.5 million and 3.5 million iPads over the past weekend, the one that marked the debut of the iPad Air in 42 countries.
That’s supposed to beat the record from last year, when the last gen iPads sold 3 million units over the same first weekend. However, back then both the iPad Mini and iPad 4 were available, but this time we only get the iPad Air. The iPad Mini Retina is expected to debut sometime this month. It appears that overall lines for the iPad Air are shorter in most places compared to last year, but doesn’t mean the sales are not high.
This is Apple’s biggest tablet launch yet, with 42 countries getting the product in the first wave. The list also includes China, a very important global market. Last year’s tablets were only launched in 27 countries, so the comparison is truly misplaced. Apple is expected to offer its own numbers for the iPad Air sometime today, or they could wait for the new Mini to arrive and only then share numbers.
