New iPad already accounts for 1 in 15 Apple tablets

Computerworld - A week after the launch of the new iPad, the device now accounts for about 1 in 15 Apple tablets accessing the Internet, a mobile ad network said today.

Chitika, which regularly mines data from its ad-serving network for device and browser usage patterns, said that over the past 24 hours the new iPad generated 6.6% of all iPad traffic that goes through the company's systems.

Apple's first-generation tablet and 2011's iPad 2 were responsible for the remaining 93.4%.

The new iPad's part of the Apple tablet pie has been slowly increasing since the device's debut March 16. Early last Saturday, for example, Chitika said the new iPad hit a high of 5%, and reached a 9.9% share for an hour on Tuesday, March 20.

Although Chitika's measurements don't directly correspond with the installed base of a device -- in this case the new iPad versus the two previous models -- the firm's numbers are in the ballpark, according to figures Apple has made public.

Earlier this week, Apple said it had sold 3 million new iPads over the first weekend, a number that represents 5.4% of the 55.3 million iPads Apple sold through Dec. 31, 2011.

Also on Friday, Apple started selling the tablet in 25 more markets, including Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain, bringing the total number of countries where the new iPad is available up to 35.

And shipping delays in several of the countries where the iPad launched last Friday -- including the U.S., the U.K., France and Germany -- now stand at one to two weeks, a decrease of a week from the two-to-three-week interval just before its debut.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His email address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.

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