Apple: Piper Puts First Day iPad Sales At Up To 700,000 Units

Apple (AAPL) sold between 600,000 and 700,000 iPads on the first day of sales, including pre-orders, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster estimates.

Munster had previously estimated first weekend sales of 200,000 to 300,000 units.

The analyst writes in a research note that despite “longer than expected lines at the start of the day,” as of� 7:30 p.m. Eastern time 19 of 20 Apple stores he contacted still had all three models available for sale.

Munster said lines appeared to be longer than for previous product launches at the 5th Avenue store in New York, with 730 people in line at 9 a.m., compared to 350 at the same time for the iPhone 3GS launch, and 540 for the iPhone 3G.

A story from The Wall Street Journal reports that stores in some areas has almost no lines at all.