Apple iPad: A runaway product success story

Apple's iPad has been a runaway success for the company, rolling up sales of more than 3 million units in its first 80 days on the market and pacing at some 4.5 million units sold per quarter.

Bernstein Research said the iPad is in line for sales of about $9 billion in the U.S. next year, a pace that will make it the fourth biggest CE product category, ahead of gaming platforms and cellular phones, and just behind the Big Three: TVs, smart phones and notebook computers.

"This is much bigger than I thought it would be," Pete Najarian, co-founder of TradeMonster.com told FastMoney. "It's really a total media device and there's not much a PC can do that you can't do on an iPad."

Apple rolled the iPad out in April, and the online video industry almost immediately took the device into its fold, seeing the potential for its video streaming capabilities and its potential role in the expansion of over-the-top video delivery and TV Everywhere initiatives.

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