As the sales go up, so do the projections. Responding to the fact iPad has already surpassed 2 million units sold in the two months it's been on sale, analysts are beginning to revise their 2010 sales predictions to reflect its performance thus far.

As such, eWeek reports Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall now expects iPad to sell 10 million units in calendar 2010 - a revision that ironically takes the device back up to the level of many early predictions and the figure Apple itself is rumoured to be aiming for.

"Amazingly, in its first quarter of introduction, we believe the iPad family will easily exceed 10 percent of Apple's total revenue for the June '10 quarter (approximately $1.6 billion of $14.6 billion)," Marshall writes in a note.

"Recall it took the iPhone two quarters to achieve the same feat," he states, going on to predict total sales of 17 million by the end of 2011.

On the up and up

The figure represents a revision from Marshall's previous forecast of 7 million units in 2010, which itself had been previously upped from a figure of 4 million.

Indeed, it's actually Marshall's fourth attempt to predict iPad sales in 2010. His initial figure of 2.2 million now looks a touch ridiculous, given Apple may have already surpassed that total.

However, it does illustrate how the initial take up of iPad has caused commentators to re-evaluate their projections, and the unpredictable nature of the nascent tablet market as a whole.

"I think the success of the iPad, or rather the degree of its success, is quite remarkable," fellow analyst Ken Hyers of Technology Business Researche.

"For being a niche product that is neither smartphone nor laptop, it has found a much wider market than I had expected, particularly given the current economic environment and consumers' spending patterns."

[source: eWeek]