Hundreds of shoppers lined up for hours in nine countries around the world as Apple’s new iPad became available for sale on Friday.

The iPad, which beat industry expectations by selling 1 million tablets in the first month of sales in the U.S., was released in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the U.K.

Market researcher IDC estimates that nearly six million iPads will be shipped by the end of 2010.

The sale of the iPad is only days before two major news sites in the U.K. began to charge readers for viewing content online.

“The Times of London” and “Sunday Times” will begin to charge readers $1.43 for a one day subscription or $2.87 per week to access both sites.

The iPad is unique, analysts say, because it is creating a new market segment in between mobile phones and computer laptops.

How much this new segment becomes a “game changer” is still to be seen, analysts say, but it is generating excitement among a diverse set of industries, including application designers, book publishers and news media organizations.

Many are even saying that the iPad could be seen as the saviour of the newspaper industry.

(Source: CNN Blog)