Apple on pace to sell 9 million iPads in 2010

- We count how many new, unique iPads we see coming through the Chitika advertising network - We multiply that by how much of the Internet we see at any given time to figure out how many iPads in total are out there - We  look at where iPad traffic is coming from by state

While far from perfect, its cookie approach actually serves as a pretty decent barometer of iPad sales. Apple sold 500,000 iPads in its first week, so that would mean that its pace has slowed to roughly half that, or 250,000 per week in weeks two and three.

If Apple's indeed already sold 1 million iPads in a scant three weeks, it could close out the year with around 9 million iPads sold (assuming a pace of 1M units per month) or even as many as 10 million with a big holiday surge. Not bad for a product that it was only available for three quarters of the year.