AT&T: iPad activations more than triple last year's launch

(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET )

AT&T had a good weekend thanks to the iPad.

The carrier said that iPad activations over the past three days rose more than 200 percent over last year's launch weekend, as customers signed up for plans for the newiPad Air.

The comparisons are a bit skewed because the cellular-enabled iPad Air was released on launch day this year, while the cellular versions of the fourth-generation iPad and iPad Mini didn't come out until a few weeks after the November 2 iPad launch day (it launched on November 16). Of course, AT&T didn't benefit from an iPad Mini with Retina Display this year.

AT&T said it saw strong demand for AT&T Next, its monthly installment plan in which customers can walk out of the store without putting any money down. (Customers are required to sign up for a data plan.)

The company said another driver was AT&T Mobile Share, its family data plan that allows customers to add a tablet for $10 a month. The tablet would draw from a shared bucket of data.