Apple reported its quarterly results on Monday, and revealed that it sold around 4.2 million iPads during Q3.  That brings its total to around 7.4 million iPads in under six months.

Analysts had expected a higher number, but with major retailers including Walmart beginning to sell the devices soon, sales velocity is expected to accelerate. 

In the conference call, Apple CEO Steve Jobs dismissed competition from other tablets coming to market, noting that most of them are planned with 7” screens, which Apple does not feel is large enough to work as a table device. 

The iPad is having a big impact on digital comic sales; it’s the first mobile device with the screen size to allow viewing comic pages created for print with their original page design.   It's also being used in significant numbers for RPG gaming.