If Apple’s competitors need a reminder of what an uphill struggle they face trying to dethrone the iPad, look no further than some new figures from analysts showing that the iPad is being adopted by buyers faster than many other popular consumer electronics, including the DVD player.

CNBC is reporting that the iPad is being snapped up at a much faster adoption rate than other consumer electronics. According to Bernstein Research, the iPad sold three million units in the first 80 days -- with a current sales rate of 4.5 million units per quarter -- versus 350,000 units sold in the first year for the DVD player, which ranks as the most quickly adopted non-phone electronic product.

“The iPad did not seem destined to be a runaway product success straight out of the box,” Bernstein Research retail analyst Colin McGranahan states in a note to investors. “By any account, the iPad is a runaway success of unprecedented proportion.”

The iPad is even flying past its smaller sibling, the iPhone, which sold one million units in its first quarter. If the current sales trend continue, the iPad will zip past gaming hardware and the cellular phone itself to become the fourth largest consumer electronics category, with estimated sales of more than $9 billion in the U.S. next year. The current top three are televisions, smartphones and notebook PCs.

Recent reports claim that those accelerated sales may be having an impact on netbook PC sales, but possibly other categories as well, such as TVs or digital cameras. “It is the rare American household that would spend $600-plus dollars on an iPad and buy a TV or a PC or a digital camera in the same month, or the same quarter, or maybe even the same year,” said McGranahan.

That cannibalization may get even more pronounced soon, with competing tablet computers from the likes of Microsoft, HP and Research in Motion yet to come.

“This is much bigger than I thought it would be,” said TradeMonster.com co-founder Pete Najarian. “It’s really a total media device and there’s not much a PC can do that you can’t do on an iPad.”

CNBC notes that in fairness to the DVD player, the initial models were a “bulky, pricey change from video recorders that had become a staple of most American homes.” However, in a sign of the times, they also note that it took the DVD player five years to reach the same unit sales pace that the iPad hit in its first quarter alone.

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