Barclays: iPad 2 will ship in April
updated 07:00 pm EST, Fri February 25, 2011
Analysts expect just under 30M sold in 2011
Barclays analyst Kirk Yang has told investors that the iPad 2 will ship in April, just like its predecessor, according to a report on Digital Daily. The new model is expected to be unveiled at a special event next Wednesday in San Francisco, but speculation persists on exactly when it will actually hit stores. Citing supply chain sources, Yang believes Apple is shooting for shipments to begin in early April, or around the same date as the original Wi-Fi only model of iPad hit stores one year ago. He estimates Apple will eventually sell 28.8 million iPads in fiscal 2011.
Yang believes the units are being manufactured now, having had their specifications finalized earlier this month, and that Apple will have an initial shipment of two million units ready to go on launch day. Last year, Apple began taking pre-orders on the iPad about three weeks before the first shipments, selling tens of thousands of units on the first day and refuting early pundit skepticism. The company ended up selling 15 million units in 2010, even though there were only nine months of availability.
In line with current conventional wisdom on the new model, Barclays expects the iPad 2 to be thinner, lighter, faster and feature at least one camera for FaceTime support. Yang believes the device will continue to be a market leader through 2012: on top of the 28.8M estimated to sell this year, he thinks Apple will sell 40M units in fiscal 2012. [via Digital Daily]
