Apple may sell 600,000 of the the iPad 2 when it debuts this weekend, extending the device’s lead in a crowding market, according to “Bloomberg Businessweek” (http://macte.ch/p2luf). The iPad 1 sold 300,000 in 24 hours.

The iPad 2 went on sale on Apple’s website at 4 a.m., then appears in U.S. stores at 5 p.m. Brian Marshall, an analyst at Gleacher & Co. who predicted more than a half- million in unit sales, is one of several who expect the iPad 2 to outpace its predecessor, notes “Bloomberg Businessweek.”

Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies, projects sales of 500,000 iPad 2s in two days. He — along with analysts from Rodman & Renshaw LLC and Piper Jaffray & Co. — also predicts the device will outsell the first iPad.