Edible Apple

During the recent holiday quarter, Apple sold a record 22.9 million iPads. This impressive sales figure was of course the result of the new iPad Mini which was being picked up by consumers faster than Apple could churn them out.

Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2013, a new report from the Chinese-language CCIDNet claims that Apple’s supply problems with respect to the iPad Mini have been corrected and that first quarter iPad Mini shipments may reach about 11 million units. The report also claims that total iPad sales for the current quarter will check in at 19 million units. During the same quarter a year-ago, Apple sold 11.8 million iPads. As such, should Apple in fact sell 19 million iPads, that’s a 61% increase year over year. Not too shabby for a company that many analysts and pundits are exclaiming is done for.

And when you think about it, 19 million iPads this quarter really seems doable.

Consider that during the January quarter of 2012, the iPad 2 was still Apple’s flagship tablet as the iPad 3 wasn’t released until March 16, 2012. It’s extremely likely that iPad demand during that quarter was compressed a bit due to the looming iPad 3 release as the iPad 2 at that time was almost a year into its product cycle.

Contrast that to the current quarter where the iPad 4th generation is barely 3 months old and is still selling well. What’s more, Apple just announced the impending release of a 128GB model of the 4th gen iPad. Add the super successful iPad Mini into the equation and it’s clear that iPad demand this quarter will be much much larger than it was during the same quarter a year-ago.

Curiously, the report also notes that iMac shipments are expected to reach 14 million units. Seeing as Apple, at best, sells about 4-5 million Macs per quarter, the entire report is suspect or perhaps the figure is the result of a typo or error in translation.

Regardless, the report claims that low yields on the iMac – which resulted in lower than anticipated Mac sales last quarter – have also improved and that shipments should increase going forward.

via CCidnet