Gold Friday: iPad Sales Set Post-Turkey Day Record

Apple celebrated "Black Friday" 2010 with plenty of black ink, welcoming turkey-stuffed earlybird shoppers with first-time store discounts on their signature hardware.  Said buyers responded in kind by scarfing up Macs and iDevices in record quantities.

Financial analysts at Piper Jaffray monitored sales over a seven-hour period at a variety of Apple stores.  By their counts, Macs were selling at a brisk 8.2 units per hour per store (or one computer every 7 seconds).  This sounds like some hot retail action — until you realize that last year's rate was 8.3, while 2008 numbers were 13 per hour per store.

To drive that lower Mac number even further home, iPads continue their Best First Year Ever (remember, they've only been available since April!) with a snappy 8.8 units per hour per store; based on those numbers, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster expects Q4 iPad sales to hit five and a half meellion.  Pointing out that the iPad (and its lower pricetag) is appealing to market segments that have been historically resistant to Macs, Munster declared that the tablet is becoming "the Mac of the masses."