Hasta La Gadget!

As we mentioned this morning, Microsoft has managed to move more than 2.5 million Kinect units in the first 25 days that the product has been on sale. To put that into perspective, that’s roughly twice the current rate of iPad sales.

Breaking things down, 2.5 million in 25 days is around 100,000 units a day. It took 60 days, meanwhile, for the iPad to sell its first two million units. Apple has sold three million iPads in the device’s first 80 days and is expected to sell 4.5 million in the device’s first quarter. That breaks down to 50,000 a day–half of Kinect’s current rate.

Back in September, a Microsoft exec predicted that Kinect sales would dwarf those of the iPad, “The preorders have been really strong. As far as what we’re looking at for Holiday, this is going to be stuff that’ll blow away any of the sales you’ve seen with iPad.”

The Kinect is doing gangbusters, certainly, but there are a few things to take into account here–the comparison isn’t really apples to apples. For one thing, Kinect starts at $150–the iPad starts at $500 (and goes all the way up to $800). Also, Microsoft got an early boost from Black Friday sales.

Then there’s the fact that the Kinect had a built-in audience when it launched: Xbox 360 users. Apple, on the other hand, had to convince users that they ought to be interested in a space that they had long ignored.

All said, it looks to be a pretty solid holiday season for Microsoft and Apple alike.