Apple announced this morning that it sold a total of three million of its new iPad models – the iPad mini and 4th generation iPad – in their first three days of availability. That is twice as many sales as the company saw for third-generation iPads when that model launched.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “Customers around the world love the new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad. “We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis. We’re working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand.”

The company notes that demand for the iPad mini exceeded its initial supply. Many of the pre-orders have been shipped to customers, but won’t be shipped until later this month.

So far, only the Wi-Fi version has been available for the new models, and the Wi-Fi + Cellular versions of the iPad mini and fourth generation iPad will ship in a few weeks in the U.S. They’ll come to other countries later this year.

The Wi-Fi versions are currently available in 34 countries, and will also be available in others (including China) later this year.

Meanwhile, new data from IDC shows that Apple’s share of the overall tablet market has fallen to just over 50%, with Samsung, Amazon, and Asus making significant ground. The entire tablet market has grown 49.5% since the third quarter.