• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, June 1, 2010

The iPad craze has legs, judging by continuing brisk sales in May -- the second month of availability. Since the new tablet-style Apple computer debuted on April 3, over 2 million devices have been sold around the world, according to the company. This sustains the former pace of roughly a million devices per month in April.

The announcement comes after the first week of international sales, when the new device hit stores in Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan. Nine more countries are expected to come online over the next two months, according to Apple.

Overall, developers have introduced over 5,000 apps for the iPad -- adding to over 200,000 iPhone and iPod apps, which are mostly compatible with the iPad.

Big publishers and radio broadcasters have pinned their hopes for new distribution and revenue sources on growing penetration by smartphones and a new generation of e-readers, including the Apple iPad and Amazon's Kindle, among others.

Last week, for example, Time Inc. chairman and CEO Ann Moore said the company will introduce iPad apps for seven more magazine brands over the next year, including paid apps from Real Simple covering easy household fix-its, at a price of $4.99 each, per Folio:. The apps will also be compatible with Google's Android operating system.

Earlier, Conde Nast and Gannett Co. were among the first to get the new iPad versions of their publications out.

Conde Nast trumped the rest of the magazine world with its announcement that GQ would be the first consumer magazine available for the iPad when the new device begins shipping on April 3. Conde also said it prepared iPad-compatible versions of a number of other titles, including the June issues of Wired and Vanity Fair, to be followed at some later date this year by The New Yorker and Glamour.

Separately, Gannett's national flagship, USA Today, debuted an iPad-compatible digital version of the newspaper available, making it the first national newspaper to do so. Currently, the newspaper app is sponsored by Courtyard Marriott; on July 4 USA Today said it will shift to a fee-based subscription model.