Analysts Raise iPad Sales Estimates
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iPad sales continue to remain strong causing analysts to revise their sales estimates upwards to reflect the high demand. RBC Capital Markets’ analyst Mike Abramsky, just upped his iPad sales forecasts from 5 million units to 8 million for 2010. In his most recent research note, Abramsky attributes his bullish stance to the upcoming international rollout of the iPad, as well as product shortages in the US indicating continued strong demand.
“Checks indicate that US iPad sales remain strong post-launch, driven by rising consumer visibility to iPad’s user experience, sustained PR/word-of-mouth marketing, 3G iPad launch, and broadening iPad apps/content. We believe Apple is now selling >200k iPads/wk, greater than US Macs (est. 110k Macs/wk) and just below US iPhone 3GS first qtr (246k/wk).”
Abramsky is one of the more bullish Apple analysts and his forecasts routinely run higher than his peers. In comparison, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Muster is currently forecasting around 5 million iPads to be sold by the end of this year, although Munster has noted his estimates may be too conservative given recent demand.
The amazing thing is, by Aramsky’s estimates, iPad sales are running nearly twice as high as Mac sales. It’s clear that Apple has a hit on their hands and iPad sales will easily eclipse the $1 billion mark this year.
