Apple CEO Tim Cook has announced that 17 million iPads were sold in the second quarter of 2012.

Or, as he put it, "we sold more iPads than any PC manufacturer sold of their entire PC line."

Apple has now sold a total of 84 million iPads – a number that has helped propel total iOS device sales over the 400 million mark.

In the first quarter of 2012, Apple sold a comparatively measly 11.8 million iPads.

Getting bigger

According the Apple, the iPad's share of the tablet market has grown from 62 percent last year to 68 percent, despite increased competition from Android and Amazon tablets.

And it would seem that iPads are used more, too. The iPad accounts for 91 percent of all tablet web traffic, a statistic that led Cook to quip, "I don't know what these other tables are doing."

"They must be in warehouses or store shelves or maybe in peoples' bottom drawer."

'appy days

Cook finished his statistical rampage with some App Store data. Apple's app marketplace is now home to more than 700,000 applications, some 250,000 of which are optimised for the iPad.

Seemingly keen to demonstrate that its vast library of apps is actually in use, Cook explained that 90 percent of those 700,000 are downloaded every month.

It's no wonder really, considering that the average iOS customer apparently uses more than 100 apps.

Nonetheless, it's an impressive growth rate, since figures released in June 2012 at WWDC showed a total of 650,000 apps, 225,000 of which were iPad-optimised.