Apple continues to face supply constraints with new iPad
Due to overwhelming worldwide demand, customers hoping to buy a new iPad may see longer than usual wait times in some markets as Apple fights to ramp up supply.
Apple announced on Tuesday that 11.8 million iPads were sold during the company's second fiscal quarter, representing a 151 percent increase from the 4.69 million sold a year ago. The revenue generated by the tablet and its accessories accounted for $6.6 billion.
?The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you?re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver,? said Apple CEO Tim Cook during the company's earnings conference call.
The number missed analysts' estimates of 13 million units, though Cook said that the popularity of the new iPad put a strain on Apple's supply. In its first weekend of availability, which was over a month ago, the new iPad sold some 3 million copies as part of the company's fastest tablet rollout to date.
Due to the limited supply of new iPads and the lower-priced previous generation iPad 2, which Apple carried over from 2011 as a more economical entry-level device, no direct conclusion could be made as to the tablets' comparative demand.
?The new iPad was supply constrained last quarter for the full three weeks or so that it was shipping and it actually is still constrained, so mix of new iPad to the iPad 2 is not certain yet,? said CFO Peter Oppenheimer.
In any case, the adoption rate of both the new 16GB-only version of the iPad 2 and the third-generation iPad remains strong.
To date, the iPad has sold over 67 million units. Cook puts that number into perspective, saying that ?it took us 24 years to sell that many Macs, five years for that many iPods, and 3 years for iPhones, and we we're extremely happy with the trajectory on all those products. I think the iPad, it?s a profound product, the breadth of it is incredible, the appeal of it is universal. I could not be happier with being in the market.?
Apple announced on Tuesday that 11.8 million iPads were sold during the company's second fiscal quarter, representing a 151 percent increase from the 4.69 million sold a year ago. The revenue generated by the tablet and its accessories accounted for $6.6 billion.
?The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you?re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver,? said Apple CEO Tim Cook during the company's earnings conference call.
The number missed analysts' estimates of 13 million units, though Cook said that the popularity of the new iPad put a strain on Apple's supply. In its first weekend of availability, which was over a month ago, the new iPad sold some 3 million copies as part of the company's fastest tablet rollout to date.
Due to the limited supply of new iPads and the lower-priced previous generation iPad 2, which Apple carried over from 2011 as a more economical entry-level device, no direct conclusion could be made as to the tablets' comparative demand.
?The new iPad was supply constrained last quarter for the full three weeks or so that it was shipping and it actually is still constrained, so mix of new iPad to the iPad 2 is not certain yet,? said CFO Peter Oppenheimer.
In any case, the adoption rate of both the new 16GB-only version of the iPad 2 and the third-generation iPad remains strong.
To date, the iPad has sold over 67 million units. Cook puts that number into perspective, saying that ?it took us 24 years to sell that many Macs, five years for that many iPods, and 3 years for iPhones, and we we're extremely happy with the trajectory on all those products. I think the iPad, it?s a profound product, the breadth of it is incredible, the appeal of it is universal. I could not be happier with being in the market.?
Comments
The iPad and MacBook Air are easily two of my favorite Apple products ever.
Constraints? A good laxative should help. China needs one anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Postulant
Wow, it took 24 years to sell 67 million Macs?
It's even more impressive considering it took the first 24 years of 28 years of existence of the Macintosh.
Or: In the last 4 quarters Apple sold as many iPads as Macs in the last 13...
BTW I think this quarter we may see iPad sales catching up with the last December quarter.
Quote:
BTW I think this quarter we may see iPad sales catching up with the last December quarter.
Actually, it is likely iPad sales will exceed the 15.43M from Q1. Since the new iPad was only available for 2 weeks in selected countries for Q2, I think we are going to see the full force of iPad sales in Q3. Probably something in the 18-20M range.
Quote:
Originally Posted by smalM
It's even more impressive considering it took the first 24 years of 28 years of existence of the Macintosh.
Or: In the last 4 quarters Apple sold as many iPads as Macs in the last 13...
BTW I think this quarter we may see iPad sales catching up with the last December quarter.
...And it's doubly impressive that the most expensive tablets on the market are so well-designed and desirable that they are selling as fast as they can be made. This has got to really eat at Steve Ballmer; there's a huge market being filled and he has no horse in the race. By the time he gets Win8 out the door the party will have gone on so long no one will care if he shows up or not. The janitors will just sweep around him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Postulant
Wow, it took 24 years to sell 67 million Macs? The new iPad is an awesome product... I'm not at all surprised by the supply constraints.
The iPad and MacBook Air are easily two of my favorite Apple products ever.
Times have changes and computers are much more mainstream than they used to be. So the comparison is not entirely fair to the Mac.
And yet every Walmart, Target, Fred Meyer, Sam's Club and Best Buy in Anchorage has plenty in stock right now. If Alaska isn't suffering any shortages, I doubt anywhere in the lower 48 is either.