• Fortune, Monday, March 14, 2011 11:50 AM

Proving that Apple's grip on the tablet market is tighter than ever, retailers reportedly sold out of the iPad 2 during its debut weekend.  According to Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, Apple sold 400,000 to 500,000 iPad 2s, compared with 300,000 iPad 1s during its debut weekend last year. What's more, showing the tablet's ever-broadening appeal, 70% of iPad 2 buyers were new to the iPad, compared with 23% of iPhone 4 buyers who were new to the iPhone at launch.

"We believe this shows Apple is expanding its base of iPad users, which is critical to maintaining its early lead in the growing tablet market," Munster tells Fortune. "As the user base grows, Apple's lead widens, and the company has a proven track record of building unmatched brand loyalty, which we believe will be a potent combination as the tablet market evolves."

"The survey isn't definitive by any means, but it suggests that Apple is expanding its reach beyond its core fans to people who own a lot of non-Apple gear," adds VentureBeat. Notes GigaOm, the findings should come in handy "in case anyone doubted the iPad's potential to be on [sic] ongoing success." Indeed, "This should bolster Apple's early lead in the nascent tablet market, which Forrester Research said was 90 percent through 2010 and should end 2011 at 80 percent, owing to Apple's strong brand and channel affinities," writes eWeek.

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