Apple tablet set for spring launch?
Production is starting and should hit mass-market stride in February, says an analyst
Artist's rendition of an Apple tablet computer, with iPhone. Credit: AppleInsider
"The manufacturing cogs for the tablet are creaking into action," writes Oppenheimer's Yair Reiner in a note to clients issued Wednesday morning.
According to his supply chain sources, Apple (AAPL) appears to be gearing up to build as many as 1 million tablet computers per month. Assuming the company would need 5 or 6 weeks of inventory before going live, that suggests — barring production hiccups — a March or April 2010 launch.
Among the other "tidbits" Reiner says he's picked up:
Will iPhone sales disappoint investors?
Production "hiccups" may depress next week's earnings, warns one analyst
Compared with the increasingly sunny predictions streaming from his competitors, the note Oppenheimer's Yair Reiner sent clients Friday morning was something of a buzz kill.
"We believe Apple could report in line to slightly disappointing [fiscal fourth quarter] revenue," he wrote, advising investors to hold off buying shares until after Monday's quarterly earning's report.
The focus of his concern: the iPhone.
Reiner's estimate for Apple's fourth quarter iPhone sales was already the lowest of all the analysts we surveyed — 6 million, compared with a consensus just over 7 million and a high estimate (from Citibank's Richard Gardner) of 8.05 million.
But even 6 million, he says, could prove too high, due to what he calls "component/manufacturing hiccups."
