Apple's iPhone most popular item on eBay in 2010

Apple's iPhone beat out Barbie and the World Cup to take the coveted spot of most popular item on eBay's Top Shopped 2010 list, while the iPad came in fifth.

eBay compiles the annual list by analyzing sale and search data from the year to track top shopping trends.
Over 1.63 million iPhone 4 related items were sold on eBay in 2010, according to eBay. The iPad and its related items saw over 600,000 sales this year, enough to take fifth place for the year.
Barbie came in second with 1.17 million sales. "Military jackets" took third place, while the classic Hot Wheels toys came in fourth. Rounding out the list were the World Cup, The Beatles, Silly Bandz, Alice in Wonderland and the New Orleans Saints.
The list demonstrates significant gains by Apple, as last year's list did not include any technology items. Sales of iPhone items this year nearly tripled the sales of last year's top seller, "The Yankees," which sold 551,230 items in 2009.
Apple's products have topped several year-end lists as 2010 comes to a close. Time magazine gave the iPad the title of No. 1 gadget of 2010, while the MacBook Air, iPhone 4 and Apple TV all made the top 10 list.
The iPad, iOS and iPhone were three of the top four tech topics on Twitter this year. Apple rival Google took second place with its Android mobile operating system.
And journalist Walt Mossberg ranked the iPad as his best reviewed product of 2010, calling it "amazing." The iPhone 4 tied for third place with the Android-based Samsung Galaxy S.

iPad Mania: Crowds Flock to Apple Stores

It's iPad day!

Apple (AAPL) fanatics lined up outside Apple stores from coast to coast Saturday, hoping to get their hands on its hottest new gadget, the iPad tablet computer. At the store in New York's SoHo neighborhood, eager customers arrived early for the product's release, and by midday, the line still stretched around the block.

Youssouf Diallo (pictured), who emerged from the store grinning and clutching an iPad, says: "I bought it for my son, who goes to John Jay College." Diallo is originally from the Ivory Coast but has lived in New York for over two decades.

"He's going to use it in the library," Diallo says, beaming.

Pre-Orders Sell Out

The first iPads cost $499 to $699, depending on options like hard-drive space. Later models will include 3G mobile broadband at a higher price.

Buying on Faith

Demand was also strong at other New York locations. Needham & Co. analyst Charlie Wolf told The New York Times that during his visit to Apple's Fifth Avenue store, "customers were awed by their first encounter with the product."

"Weekend sales will exceed 300,000 units, and they might approach 500,000, although that's a stretch depending as much on the initial production run as initial demand," Wolf says.

Can Momentum Be Sustained?

Along with those purchasing gifts, like Diallo, the first wave of buyers are clearly Apple fanatics and "early adopters," who represent about 15% of the population, according to analysts. These people tend to be younger, wealthier, and more tech-savvy than other consumers.