300,000 iPads sold out on the first day

A kid plays a game based on the popular animated series "The Simpsons", on an Apple iPad on its first day of release at an Apple store in San Francisco, Saturday.

Apple said it has sold more than 300,000 iPads on Saturday, the day it debuted across the United States.

Sales included pre-orders of the iPad, a new type of touch-screen device that blends features of the iPhone, electronic book readers and tablet computers.

The basic model of iPads that connect to the Internet through Wi-Fi was priced at $499. Apple will sell costlier iPads with cellular data connections later this month.

Apple said that iPad owners downloaded over a million applications from its app store and more than 250,000 electronic books on Saturday.