The Apple iPad is proving to be one of the most successful consumer electronic devices of all time. Despite much derision at its time of launch, the iPad is now selling faster than the iPhone and leading the way in the worldwide tablet revolution.

At this rate, the Apple iPad is not only flying of the shelves faster than the iPhone, but is also far ahead of entire categories of tech products like the 350,000 DVD players that sold in the first year. The iPad will reach sales of $9 billion in 2011, making it the fourth largest category of electronics and putting it ahead of cellular phones and game consoles.

The rest of the market is obviously affected by the huge success of the iPad, which is the reason why so many manufacturers are starting to produce similar tablets of their own. However, only time will tell if the Microsoft and Google Android tablets starting to hit the shelves have what it takes to acheive the same kind of consumer excitement as the iPad.

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