Christopher Caso, senior Semiconductor Devices Analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group has gone on the record about the iPad 3. Barron’s is reporting that Caso believes that the iPad 3 will start production in Q4:
We believe AAPL pulled production forward to ensure sufficient availability of iPad during the holidays, and such a move is consistent with a production decline in advance of the new model launch (we believe iPad 3 starts production in 4Q, as noted below). Thus, we believe that recent competitor reports, which only noted the 4Q production volumes two weeks ago, were misinformed. iPad 3 appears on the forecast for 4Q production start. Our checks indicate that iPad 3 has now shown up on AAPL’s production forecast for a late-4Q production start. We believe 0.6 mln-1 mln units are forecasted for 4Q production.
Like clockwork, we’re on to the next big Apple rumor — the iPad 3. However, this rumor comes straight out of a calendar instead of from an Apple insider. We get it. People love their rumors. I do too, but predicting that the iPad 3 will go into production in Q4 of this year, and ship sometime after that is asinine. The iPad 2 was announced and shipped in March of 2011 (March 25). The original iPad was announced in January and released in April of 2010. See the trend here? If Apple wants to announce and release the iPad 3 on the same timeline as the previous devices, it makes logical sense that they would begin production at some point during the Q4 of 2011.
It’s not rocket science.
Image Credit: 707d3k
