Analyst says iPad 2 sold out; 70% went to new converts

The iPad 2 has sold out, and 70 percent of purchasers were new to the iPad, according to a survey by analyst Gene Munster and his team at Piper Jaffray.

The survey isn’t definitive by any means, but it suggests that Apple is expanding its reach beyond its core fans to people who own a lot of non-Apple gear.

Munster’s numbers aren’t always right, but he puts a lot of effort into getting his guesses in order. This time, his team interviewed 236 would-be buyers in lines in New York and Minneapolis. The team also called various retailers looking for product.

As of Sunday night, Munster concluded that Apple sold 400,000 to 500,000 units this weekend, compared to 300,000 original iPad units sold in its first weekend last year.

Most of the iPad 2 units were sold in one day, with stocks gone by Sunday. His team was unable to locate a single iPad 2 on Sunday.

The good sign for Apple is that so many new buyers were purchasing the iPad 2. By comparison, only 23 percent of iPhone 4 buyers were new customers at launch.

About 51 percent of iPad 2 buyers were Mac users, while 49 percent were PC users. Roughly 74 percent of the original iPad buyers were Mac users. About 47 percent of the buyers got a 3G model, which is $130 more.

About 41 percent bought the 32-gigabyte iPad 2, up from 32 percent who bought the 32-gigabyte original iPad. The survey showed that 65 percent of buyers owned an iPhone, 24 percent had a Kindle (up from 13 percent of original iPad buyers) and 17 percent plan to use apps and play games, up from 9 percent for the original iPad.