Susquehanna Financial analyst Jeff Fidacaro says the iPad 3 is headed into production, reports AllThingsD.
Fidacaro believes that Apple is ramping up Q4 production by one million units because of an early iPad 3 production run.
“Since our last month supply chain checks we are now seeing 600,000 to one million iPad 3 builds showing up on the plan for the fourth quarter of calendar 2011,” Fidacaro told AllThingsD. “Our previous estimate did not include any iPad 3s.” So preparations for Apple’s next big product launch are already under way, presumably with an eye toward an early 2012 launch – March, perhaps – the same month Apple uncrated the iPad 2.
Fidicaro estimates that Apple shipped 11.5 million iPads in Q3 and will likely ship 13 million in Q4.
