iPad launches with 300,000 sales

Apple has announced that it sold more than 300,000 iPads on Saturday, the first day its tablet was available in US stores.

That figure includes deliveries of pre-ordered devices, as well as deliveries to Apple’s channel partners.

The company has also given figures for what those new iPad buyers did with their device on day one.

Apparently, more than one million iPad apps were downloaded from the App Store on Saturday, as well as more than 250,000 e-books.

"It feels great to have the iPad launched into the world – it’s going to be a game changer," says CEO Steve Jobs.

"iPad users, on average, downloaded more than three apps and close to one book within hours of unpacking their new iPad."

The announcement seemingly discredits a prediction from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster earlier in the weekend that Apple sold between 600,000 and 700,000 iPads in its first day on sale.

Perhaps he was including 3G models, which won’t be available until later this month, but can be pre-ordered. Perhaps.

However, Piper Jaffray also released the results of its survey of new iPad buyers in New York and Minneapolis.

It found that 74% were Mac users, 66% owned iPhones, and that of the 13% who own Amazon Kindles, 58% are planning to replace it with their new iPad.

74% plan to surf the Web on their iPads (we’re not sure why the other 26% aren’t), while 38% will read e-books, 32% will use email, 26% will watch video, and 18% will play games and use apps. Only 8% plan to use iPad for music.