Andre Yoskowitz
18 Jan 2012 20:56
Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu has come out with the most bold iPad prediction yet, 48 million units expected sold in 2012.
That number will be greatly boosted by the launch of the iPad 3 sometime in the next few months. Rumors have ranged from February to May. The iPad 3 is said to have a Retina Display with a massive resolution, a quad-core processor, LTE support and other slight aesthetic fixes.
Says Wu: "We believe this significant refresh will likely help drive higher iPad sales and help further differentiate from arguably the only real competitor in the market, Amazon?s Kindle Fire, and not to mention the myriad of Android offerings out there. We are currently modeling 48 million iPad shipments for calendar 2012."
Wu would go on to say that number is his firm's "conservative" figure. The analyst has been accurate in the tech sector over the past decade, and does a lot of work on Amazon and Apple.
Apple sold 11 million iPads last quarter, the tablet's best showing ever. Amazon's new Kindle Fire, which sells for $199 but lacks many features, sold 4 million units in the same period.