Sales, Gadgets | featured news

Fortune reporter Philip Elmer-Dewitt compiles sell-side and independent analysts forecasts on Apple.  He has gathered 56 projections that have an average of 18.4 million iPads sold from the Street analysts and 17.7 million from the independent analysts.  The median for all of them is 18 million, which would be 53% growth from last year’s 11.8 million and down 21% from December’s quarter.

Raspberry Pi, the tiny, ultra-cheap, Linux-based PC, went on sale Monday in the U.S. through retailer Allied Electronics, but it's already out of stock. The A version of the computer, which only costs $25, has 256MB of RAM, a single USB 2.0 socket, an HDMI, SD card, and 3.5 audio sockets, but no Ethernet port. Available only through Allied, the A is now completely out of stock for U.S. customers. The $35 Raspberry Pi B is also out of stock at Allied, but it can be bought through Newark, another retailer, which only carries that particular model.

Android continues to dominate the battle to be the top smartphone system in the world, thanks in part to Samsung, which reigned as the top phone manufacturer for 2012.

Revenue at Barnes & Noble stores fell 10.9% during the holidays, as sales of Nook devices slipped, a sign that the retailer is falling behind in the tablet battle with Amazon, Apple and Google.

One reason some people waited in long lines to be the first to get the new Nintendo Wii U console has nothing to do with the games. With Wii U devices all but guaranteed to be sold out at retailers around the world this Christmas, some buyers immediately put their new consoles on Ebay. Wii Us are already selling for over $500 on the site. There were well over 2,500 consoles listed on the world’s largest auction site just hours after it went on sale on November 18 at the Nintendo World store in New York City and around the globe.

Samsung sold more than 97 million mobile phones in the third quarter, besting Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone by more than 74 million units. According to Gartner (NYSE: IT), nearly 428 million mobile phones were sold during the quarter. Approximately 23.5 million of those phones were manufactured by Apple — 97.9 million were made by Samsung.

Delivery times have climbed quickly as Apple takes orders for the iPhone 5, suggesting strong demand. Apple began taking orders for the phone at 12 a.m. Pacific time. It initially promised delivery by next Friday, when the new phone also goes on sale in stores.