Pre-orders for iPad already total a quarter million?

There’s still a week to go before the iPad makes its retail debut, but the sales tally is already in the hundreds of thousands, according to a new report.

Analyst Daniel Tello wrote in his blog that he has been tracking online orders from Apple’s Web site and has estimated the following pre-sale records:

– First day of pre-order availability: 120,000
– First week: 190,000
– Second week: 240,000

That averages out to nearly one iPad order every five seconds since pre-orders opened up on March 12, for a product that’s not even out yet.

Apple, which had to push back the original release date for the iPad due to a production problem, has already said that only people who pre-order will receive an iPad on launch date.

Initial estimates predict that the iPad may sell through as many as 5 million units in its first year, which would make it one of the most successful Tablet PCs ever.