Apple sells two million iPads in two months

Week before turning the spotlight back to iPhone for WWDC, Apple posts big iPad sales

Apple announced over Memorial Day weekend that sales of its "magical and revolutionary" tablet computer, the iPad, have soared over two million shipped in less than two months. In that time, developers have created over 5,000 new apps for the device, in addition to the more than 200,000 apps in the App Store that the iPad can already run.

“Customers around the world are experiencing the magic of iPad, and seem to be loving it as much as we do,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We appreciate their patience, and are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone.”

The iPad launched stateside on April 3 as a strictly Wi-Fi model and on April 30 with the Wi-Fi + 3G model. Both models launched internationally just a few days ago, meaning Apple has many more to sell in the coming weeks. The international launch includes Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK; nine more (unannounced) countries will be getting the iPad in July and even more countries can get in on the action later in the year.

Apple's announcement arrives a week before the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) taking place at San Francisco Moscone Center from June 7 to 11.

Due to the Gizmodo leak of the tech specs of the new iPhone-to-be-announced (thinner aluminum casing, front-facing camera for video conferencing, higher-resolution screen, and a camera flash), we can expect to see Apple turn the spotlight back to its beloved smartphone.

At the same time, Apple will likely encourage developers to explore new worlds of possibility on the iPad. There are some who think Apple still needs to prove that the iPad fills a hitherto unfilled category for consumers.

Do we really need a device between a smartphone and a laptop?