No, but the steady flow of rumors about a new iPad just around the corner aren't helping
Source: Digitimes
Remember what happened to iPhone 4 sales last summer? They hit a wall in mid-July, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook, when "speculation" that Apple was about to release a new iPhone, "hit extreme highs."
Now we're in the middle of what's shaping up as Apple's (AAPL) biggest holiday season ever, and the same thing may be happening to the iPad 2.
On Monday -- with 13 shopping days until Christmas -- Taipai-based DigiTimes reported that Asian component makers have started supplying Apple with parts for a new iPad that "sources" say will go into production in January for release by March or April.
The brief item was quickly picked up by more than a dozen Western reporters, and by Monday morning it was among the top stories on the closely-watched Techmeme news aggregator.
This is not the first time DigiTimes' reporters have written about the iPad 2's successor. In fact, a search of DigiTimes' archives for what it calls the iPad 3 turns up more than 50 pieces, including 10 in July alone.
The paper's track record is, to put it kindly, mixed. In December 2010, it reported that Apple had ordered enough touch-panel screens to build 65 million iPads in 2011 -- a number that probably overshot the mark by 25 million units.
Analysts have been scaling back their iPad 2 sales estimates for the December quarter lately, in part because of the early success of Amazon's (AMZN) Kindle Fire, and in part because of the sales-killing effect of reports like DigiTimes'. We've seen estimates as high as 17 million, but more recent analysts' notes put the number closer to 13.5 million.
As of Sept. 24, Apple had sold 25 million in calendar 2011, and a total of 38.5 million since April 2010.
Likely to leave the field to Apple, Amazon and Barnes & Noble, according to DigiTimes
Source: Company reports
Taipei-based DigiTimes, which has been churning out rumors from Asian electronics parts suppliers as fast as its correspondents can type, reported Thursday that unnamed "sources from upstream supply chain" believe that PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard (HPC), Dell (DELL), Acer and Asustek will "gradually phase out" of the tablet market.
According to DigiTimes:
With Amazon offering its MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 18, 2011 6:25 AM ET
Apple seems to be controlling inventory, not reacting to a slow-down in sales
Apple's (AAPL) stock price fell sharply last week after some confused reports out of China and Taiwan regarding the company's communications with its supply chain. The first report was that Apple had cut back orders 10% to 15% on parts for the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S because, according to Taipei-based DigiTimes, "sales of the iPhone 4S MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 17, 2011 10:30 AM ET
Rumors of a slowdown in iPhone 4S sales called "off base." iPad may be a different story
[UPDATE: As several readers pointed out, Apple's share price was also hit Wednesday, along with the rest of the market, by the news out of Europe, and by the end of the day had suffered less than the NASDAQ, which fell 3.88% to Apple's 2.7%. Thursday, however, was a different story. By early afternoon, MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 9, 2011 10:56 AM ET
Up nearly 82% from 2010's 47.5 million, overtaking Nokia for the first time
Source: DigiTimes
DigiTimes, a Taipai-based daily that keeps as close tabs as any publication on the Asian supply chain, posted its estimates Tuesday for where it thinks the top 10 smartphone manufacturers will be at year's end.
Although Apple (AAPL) will have shipped the most units -- 86.4 million, up 81.9% from 2010 -- according to DigiTimes analyst Luke Lin, MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Sep 6, 2011 8:12 AM ET
No, they don't plan to produce "one last run" in order to make it up in volume
TouchPads quickly sold out at $99. Source: HP
Can you spot the dissemblance in the announcement posted Monday on Hewlett-Packard's (HPQ) The Next Bench blog?
Despite announcing an end to manufacturing webOS hardware, we have decided to produce one last run of TouchPads to meet unfulfilled demand. We don't know exactly when these units will MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 31, 2011 11:51 AM ET
Fortune's curated selection of the day's most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to you every day.
Nintendo's Wii U console, announced yesterday. Photo: Nintendo
* Nintendo pulled the wraps off its highly-anticipated new home videogame console, the Wii U. During the press event, the company emphasized the actual gaming experience over hardware specifications, though it was pretty quickly established that games would be in high-definition, MORE
JP Mangalindan, Writer-Reporter - Jun 8, 2011 10:19 AM ET
Paying whatever it takes to ramp up to a reported ship rate of 4 million iPads per month
Natori City in northeastern Japan. Photo: REUTERS/KYODO
Here's what Apple COO Tim Cook might call another "fantastic use" for the company's nearly $60 billion cash reserves.
According to a report Thursday in DigiTimes, the Taipei-based daily that is a rich source of electronics supply-chain rumors, Apple (AAPL) has agreed to absorb all the additional MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Mar 31, 2011 10:53 AM ET
A curated selection of the day's most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web.
Groupon is moving ahead with an initial public offering (IPO), which is expected to happen some time this spring. The daily deals site, which just recently raised a record $950 million, now values itself at $15 billion. (New York Times)
News Corp.'s iPad newspaper, the Daily.
The launch for News Corp's heavily-publicized iPad newspaper, the Daily, has MORE
JP Mangalindan, Writer-Reporter - Jan 14, 2011 8:34 AM ET
An estimate based on chatter among touch-panel suppliers seems way out of line
Source: Company reports, Apple 2.0
Several sites early Wednesday picked up a report from Taiwan-based DigiTimes that suppliers of 9.7 inch iPad touch-panel screens had received orders from Apple (AAPL) totaling 65 million units for 2011 -- 35 million for LG Display and 15 million each for Samsung and Chimei Innolux.
DigiTimes, which has good sources in Apple's Asian MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 29, 2010 7:11 AM ETEvery morning, discover the companies, deals and trends in tech that are moving markets and making headlines. SUBSCRIBE
Receive Fortune's newsletter on all the deals that matter, from Wall Street to Sand Hill Road. SUBSCRIBE
Covering the digital giants of Silicon Valley and beyond, an in-depth look at enterprise companies, and the startups disrupting them. Written by Michal Lev-Ram and emailed twice weekly. SUBSCRIBE
Anne Fisher answers career-related questions and offers helpful advice for business professionals. SUBSCRIBE
| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America Corp... | 7.95 | -0.16 | -1.97% |
| Intel Corp | 26.73 | -0.43 | -1.58% |
| Microsoft Corp | 31.27 | -0.17 | -0.54% |
| Ford Motor Co | 12.28 | -0.25 | -2.00% |
| General Electric Co | 19.39 | 0.17 | 0.88% |
| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 12,938.67 | -27.02 | -0.21% |
| Nasdaq | 2,933.17 | -15.40 | -0.52% |
| S&P 500 | 1,357.66 | -4.55 | -0.33% |
| Treasuries | 2.00 | -0.04 | -1.96% |
.
