How The iPad Totally Changed The World In Just Three Years

Apple's iPad was released to the world three years ago on April 3, 2010.

At the time, a lot of people were underwhelmed. We even called it a "big yawn," and said, "Jobs introduced something that is probably going to sell in the range of a few million units this year, much closer to one of the company's Macs than its runaway hits like the iPod and iPhone. Not the company's next huge growth story."

Oops. We got that one very wrong!

In the three years since the iPad launched, it's changed everything. It truly was a revolutionary device. Here's a quick run down.

Apple has sold 121 million iPads, totalling $67.7 billion in sales, and it's expected to have sold 18 million more this quarter worth $8 billion.

That makes it the fastest growing consumer tech product ever, according to Mary Meeker

The iPad killed the netbook, now it's going after notebooks.

Business Insider

The PC industry is reeling because of the iPad.

The only PC growth now comes from tablets

iPad revenue is bigger than Windows revenue!

Amazon is now a computer maker, building Kindle Fires that emulate the iPad.

AP

So is Google.

Steve Kovach, Business Insider

And, Microsoft, too.

AP

There's a reason all of these companies started making iPad wannabes. The iPad is ubiquitous. It's in airport terminals.

Pilots use iPads instead of big books.

American Airlines

Restaurants use iPads.

It's replacing cash registers.

Urban Outfitters

The first iPad looked like this ...

Wikimedia Commons

Now it looks like this ...

And it's just getting started... remember this thing is only three years old! Imagine what people will do with it in the next three years.