Digitimes says manufacturers delivered 3.4-2.6 million iPad 2 units to Apple in March and are aiming to deliver over 4 million a month -- a total of 12 million in conservative estimates -- during the next quarter. To put that in context, Apple sold 15 million original iPads during the last 9 months of 2010.
We still haven't heard anything from Apple regarding iPad 2 sales numbers but their next quarterly conference call, scheduled for April 20, will no doubt give us a definitive answer.
We're still guessing they sell every single iPad 2 they can make. You?
Reader comments
2.5 million iPad 2 built in March, 4+ million more per month on the way?
I used to make fun of all the iPod cases and accessories and how it became this huge industry. Now I'm a participant business owner and when I see how many millions of iPads are sold I wonder how to get sales from just half a percent of them... Pretty amazing.
Yeah and about to be banned again with childish language like that...
Are you a freaking spambot?
Do you mean 2.6-3.4 million?
It would be fascinating to see the breakdown -- Wifi only vs GSM vs CDMA -- just to see how Apple forecasts the relative demand across types over the next few months.
Even more interesting: Of iPad users, how many have also an iPhone, a different Smartphone, or a non-smart cellphone? I just don't see a sensible market for GSM/CDMA iPads when tethering is becoming mainstream. I don't want to pay for two cell plans for two devices. I think there are special iPad markets for kids, or as (Grandma's) home computer replacement, but most everybody who takes an iPad out of a house probably also has a smartphone, and most of those do tethering these days.
So does that mean they had the Japanese made components stockpiled, the manufacturers weren't materially impacted by everything that happened over there, or that they are now being made elsewhere? If the last one, it must have cost a small fortune to get a plant in China or wherever up and running so quickly. Lucky for us that Apple has a lot of small fortunes (and more than a few big ones) at their disposal.
And how many Xoom tablets? lmao!
4M a month is just under 100 per minute, thats pretty fast.
I had a theory the most of the so-called supply disruption was due to the rapid rise in the Yen (a 5.5% rise in your home curreny over 5 days can wipe out your margins if you are an exporting component manufacturer).
When the major global central banks acted in concert to lower the value of the Yen (which has since fallen by amost 8% in 2 weeks) the supply "disruptions" were announced to be much less severe than expected previously.