Apple's iPad sets strong sales pace: Jobs

CUPERTINO, Calif (Reuters) - APPLE (AAPL.NQ)Inc has sold 450,000 iPads since its debut on Saturday, Chief Executive Steve Jobs said, setting a torrid pace for a device expected to power the electronics giant's future growth.

Analysts had expected sales of 1 million units or more for the device -- touted as a new class of gadget that will bridge laptops and smartphones -- in the current quarter ending June, and roughly 5 million in 2010, though estimates vary widely.

Apple has staked its reputation on the 9.7-inch touchscreen tablet. It is helping foster a market for tablet computers that is expected to explode to as many as 50 million units by 2014, according to analysts.

Despite being deemed to have no clear-cut case for use other than pure media consumption, analysts expect Hewlett-Packard , Dell and others to trot out competing devices of their own this year.

Since going on sale on April 3, users have downloaded 600,000 digital books and 3.5 million applications for the iPad, Jobs said on Thursday.

At a media event at the company's Cupertino, California, headquarters, Jobs said users had also downloaded more than 4 billion applications for the iPhone since it was introduced in January 2007.

Shares of Apple turned positive briefly after Jobs' announcement before quickly dipping back into negative territory. They were 0.2 percent lower at $240.23 in afternoon trade on the Nasdaq.

Jobs also said the forthcoming iPhone OS 4.0 will include support for multitasking -- addressing a perennial consumer complaint -- allowing users to switch between several programs running simultaneously.

Apple is expected to launch the fourth generation model of its iPhone later this year.

(Reporting by Gabriel Madway; Writing by Edwin Chan; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Leslie Gevirtz)

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