Despite shortages, Apple aggressively sold the iPad 2 at launch date, part suppliers said Wednesday. Roughly 2.4 - 2.6 million iPad 2’s are believed to have shipped in March. Digitimes also said that based on a conservative estimate, Apple is likely to ship 4 - 4.3 million units a month, or a total of over 12 million iPad 2s in the second quarter.
A limiting factor for Apple could be the cover lenses, suppliers said. Taiwan-based companies like Chunghwa, G-Tech, HannStar, TPK, and Wintek are all increasing their capacities this year. Apple usually only uses a handful of suppliers and will have to stay on their supplier’s toes to stay ahead of the demand to reach these numbers.
These unofficial March shipment figures suggest an explosive, and expected, start to iPad 2 sales. Apple took 28 days to ship the first million of the original iPad and likely reached that number twice as fast for the iPad 2. Sales accelerations were certainly helped by an international release only two weeks after the US. Apple had to push non-US availability out by several weeks in 2010 with the release of the original iPad.
Most competitors are feeling the pain from the iPad 2 sales, today TechCrunch has reported that Motorola Xoom and Atrix sales are disappointing. “If it don’t make dollars, then it don’t make sense.”
[via electronista]
