Apple announced it has sold 11,8m iPads since the company debuted the tablet in early March. The number reflects a 151% increase over iPad sales during the same quarter a year ago.

The company released its third version of the iPad this quarter, starring the new “Retina” display (2048-by-1536 resolution), which quadruples the amount of pixels packed into the screen. The display was a huge draw for consumers, who purchased over 3m new iPads during the product’s opening weekend alone. The upgraded tablet also featured a faster A5X chip, a better camera, LTE network capabilities and updates to the company’s iLife and iWork app suites, which included the long-awaited debut of an iPad version of the iPhoto image-editing software.

Peter Oppenheimer, chief financial officer at Apple, said there were US$6,6bn in sales of iPads and related accessories in this quarter, a 22% increase over the same quarter last year. Oppenheimer said the iPad is making big progress in some non-traditional markets, starting with education. Apple has sold two iPads to every one Mac to its US K-12 education customers.

“iPads continue to open doors to new customers with whom apple previously had no relationship,” said Oppenheimer. Getting new users young might be what makes education a particularly appealing area for Apple.

Businesses and governments are also fertile areas for iPad sales. The US Air Force has purchased thousands of iPads to act as electronic flight bags for its pilots, and the majority of Fortune 500 companies are members of the iOS developer enterprise programme.

“The new iPad is on fire and we’re selling them as fast as we can make them,” said Oppenheimer. — VentureBeat