Apple has reached this milestone in less than half the time (74 days) of the first generation iPhone.

Since the launch of the iPad, users have downloaded 12 million apps from the iTunes App store, along with 1.5 million ibooks. Currently there are more than 5,000 iPad specific apps to chose from and that number is growing daily.

Regarding availability of the iPad, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was quoted as saying… “Demand continues to exceed supply and we’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers.”

While the iPad has had many critics who have suggested that there is not much of a market for a new device that fits in between a smartphone and a laptop, the numbers would suggest otherwise.

The latest push in sales comes after Apple’s Friday release of the iPad 3G with Mobile broadband support.