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.

IDC

The only PC growth now comes from tablets

BII

iPad revenue is bigger than Windows revenue!

Business Insider

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

So is Google.

And, Microsoft, too.

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

Jay Yarow, Business Insider

Pilots use iPads instead of big books.

Restaurants use iPads.

Charles Rex Arbogast / AP

It's replacing cash registers.

The first iPad looked like this ...

Now it looks like this ...

REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

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.