Apple on Monday revealed that it sold 3 million new iPads since the tablet hit stores on March 16.
"The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold―the strongest iPad launch yet," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, in a statement. "Customers are loving the incredible new features of iPad, including the stunning Retina display, and we can't wait to get it into the hands of even more customers around the world this Friday."
Apple was asked about iPad sales during an early morning conference call about plans for a dividend and stock repurchase, but Apple CEO Tim Cook declined to provide exact stats. He would only say that Apple saw "record" sales of the new iPad and that Cupertino was "thrilled" by the results.
With the new iPad, he said, "it just keeps getting better."
In a separate statement, meanwhile, AT&T - which is offering the 4G version of the new iPad - said it "set a new single-day record for its iPad sales and activations."
Verizon Wireless is also selling the 4G version of the new iPad here in the U.S., but has not released launch day stats just yet.
The tablet is also selling via Best Buy, Radio Shack, Sam's Club, Target, and Walmart.
The new iPad also launched in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Friday. It will hit 24 additional countries at 8am on March 23.
When the first-generation iPad was launched in 2010, consumers snapped up 300,000 tablets in the first day. Apple did not reveal first-day sales for the iPad 2, but Apple acknowledged that it was hit with the "mother of all backlogs" for its second-gen tablet.
The updated tablet includes a Retina Display, 4G LTE connectivity, an improved camera, and the new A5X processor with a quad-core GPU, among other things. At this point, wait time for new iPads ordered via Apple.com are at 2-3 weeks.
For more, see PCMag's full review of the new iPad and the slideshow below.