This is interesting, an analyst is claiming that his supply chain sources are telling him that the iPad 3 is already moving into production and the analyst in question is from Susquehanna Financial, is named Jeff Fidacaro. According to Fidacaro’s checks, Apple has ramped up Q4 iPad orders to between 12 and 14 million up from a planned 11 to 13 million, which tip that the increase is in part due to early production runs of the iPad 3. The iPad 2 landed in March of this year and Apple will undoubtedly sell hoards of the next iPad so getting it into production early makes sense. This increase is due to the production of the iPad 3, whose numbers are between 600,000 to 1 million builds and it’s not hard to imagine seeing the successor to the iPad 2 early 2012…………..

Something would be up if there wasn’t a rumour of a new Apple device entering production, but a new report suggests that the Cupertino-based company has begun to start production of its new tablet device, which is being referred to as the iPad 3 and Susquehanna Financial analyst Jeff Fidacaro believes Apple has started to increase iPad production in the fourth quarter, bumping up its builds to 12 to 14 million units from between 11 million and 13 million. Caso specifically stated in his missive that as many as one million iPad 3 units could be built between now and the end of 2011. Earlier this year, Apple had to discuss some disappointing sales figures for the iPad 2. For the second quarter, the company shipped just 4.69 million units, ar less than projections, which had ranged between 6 and 8 million and the company denied this low figure had anything to do with consumer demand. As Caso stated in his research note, “We believe Apple 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) … iPad 3 appears on the forecast for 4Q production start. Our checks indicate that iPad 3 has now shown up on Apple’s production forecast for a late 4Q production start.” The iPad 3 will be manufactured not in China or Taiwan, but at a Foxconn Electronics manufacturing plant in Brazil and the iPad 3 is rumored to launch in the beginning of 2012.

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