San Francisco, Nov 6 (IANS): Apple announced Monday that it sold three million iPad mini and fourth generation iPad when the products went on sale this weekend.

Apple didn't disclose how many of the three-million sales were for the iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad. CEO Tim Cook said the smaller iPad were almost sold out.

"Customers around the world love the new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad," Xinhua quoted him as saying.

"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," Cook said in a statement.

Demand for iPad mini exceeded the initial supply and while many of the pre-orders have been shipped to customers, some are scheduled to be shipped later this month.

The iPad mini and fourth generation iPad went on sale Friday. Some analysts expected iPad mini to eat into the sales of full-sized iPad.

It estimated at least two-thirds of the three-million iPads Apple sold are iPad minis.

Market research company IDC said Monday that Apple's tablet market share slip notably in the third quarter as consumers were in anticipation of the announcement of iPad mini.

IDC said Apple is expected to have a good holiday quarter, but iPad mini's relatively high starting price of $will leave plenty of room for its competitors.