You might have expected the first iPad app sales news to come out at least a day or so after the device's debut, but the fact consumers are downloading games in advance of receiving their units is news in and of itself.

As such, Imangi Studios - the developer behind line-drawing game Harbor Master - has revealed Harbor Master HD has managed to shift 3,217 copies since it was approved for sale on Wednesday.

It's an especially telling insight, given the app topped the free apps chart in the US yesterday.

Lucky Luckyanova

"3,204 copies of Harbor Master HD were downloaded yesterday," co-founder Natalia Luckyanova said on the developer's blog.

"That's right, two days before the public even gets the iPad. On Wednesday, before the iPad section of iTunes went live, only 13 copies were downloaded."

According to the firm's figures, 90 percent of the downloads came from the US. However, Luckyanova also notes that several copies have been downloaded in both Germany and the UK.

That's a revealing statistic, as Luckyanova states, given the iPad section of the App Store hasn't even gone live in Europe yet.

Manic marketplace

"The reason these numbers are interesting is that people are downloading apps in huge numbers before they can even use them," Luckyanova concludes.

"The #1 free iPhone game generally gets 100,000-300,000 downloads a day. Our numbers are about 1 percent of that amount, which corresponds with the estimates that the iPad marketplace is currently at about 1 percent of the iPhone marketplace.

"I predict that the numbers will only go higher as people actually get their devices in hand. Make no mistake, this marketplace is going to be huge."

[source: Imangi Studios]