CUPERTINO, Calif. — With the iPhone 4S arriving at market Friday, the never-sated Apple rumor mill is clamoring for more grist, and, as always, there is plenty of it to be had, this time involving the iPad 3.
According to Susquehanna Financial analyst Jeff Fidacaro, the device was headed into production.
Supply chain checks suggested to Fidacaro that Apple was ramping up its fourth-quarter iPad builds to between 12 and 14 million from between 11 million and 13 million. And, importantly, that upward adjustment was due in part to 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 said. “Our previous estimate did not include any iPad 3s.”
So already preparations for Apple’s next big product launch were underway, presumably with an eye toward an early 2012 launch — perhaps March, the same month Apple uncrated the iPad 2.
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