Edible Apple

With competitors still struggling in vain to dethrone the iPad, Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn will reportedly ship 20 million iPad 2 units this quarter, representing a 60% increase in sequential growth.

While this obviously doesn’t represent how many iPads Apple will ultimately sell, Apple last quarter sold nearly  every iPad it manufactured amid booming demand that it was ultimately unable to meet. That said, it stands to reason that Apple may in fact sell a whopping 20 million iPad 2 units this quarter, once again leaving Android-based competitors in the dust.

To understand how lofty and impressive the 20 million figure is, Apple in the quarter gone by shipped 9.25 million iPads to consumers, a quarterly record and representing a 183% increase from the same quarter in 2010.

Earlier this year, iPad 2 production at Foxconn was lower than expected due to component shortages and a shortage of labor as well. Consequently, Apple’s iPad 2 throughput in early 2011 was lessened by what Tim Cook called the “mother of all backlogs.”

All told, Apple initially told manufacturers that it plans to ship anywhere between 35 and 40 million iPads during the 2011 fiscal year. That figure, however, may now be somewhat lower in light of the aforementioned shortages coupled with the affects of the devastating earthquakes and tsunamis that hit Japan earlier this year.

via Digitimes