Chitika: Third Gen iPad Adoption Climbing Fast

After only three weeks on the market, Apple’s third generation iPad already accounts for nearly 10 percent of all online iPad traffic, indicating that the company’s newest multimedia tablet is quickly adding to the over 55 million iPads that were already in consumer’s hands.

Analysis firm Chitika has been monitoring online iPad usage in 24 hour blocks, and found that after the first four days the new iPad was available it held five percent of online iPad traffic, and has been steadily climbing. After three weeks, that number is fluctuating between nine and 10 percent.

Third gen iPads already account for 10% of online iPad trafficThird gen iPads already account for 10% of online iPad traffic

“After surpassing a 5 percent adoption rate (relative to all iPads) after only four days on the market, The new iPad has been steadily gaining share on a daily basis,” said Chitika’s Gabe Donini. “While this rapid increase can likely be attributed to early adopters of the product, a much more impressive feat lies in the tablets sustained growth in share since its release.”

Apple said its third generation iPad launched to record breaking sales over the first three days of availability. “The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold―the strongest iPad launch yet,” said Apple senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing Philip Schiller.

The Chitika data shows the highest concentration of new iPads is in California, followed by Connecticut, Hawaii and Wisconsin. Over 11.5 percent of all iPads online in California are the third generation model, and over 10 percent of iPads in Connecticut, Hawaii and Wisconsin are the third generation model, too.

Assuming Chitika’s data is reasonably accurate, the adoption rate for the third generation iPad is likely worrying Apple’s competitors who are all fighting for their own slice of the tablet computer market.