An analyst at Needham & Company, Charlie Wolf, believes that in the April to June quarter, Apple will report sales of over 20 million iPads, up from his previous forecast of 13.5 million units. According to AppleInsider.com, he says his previous forecast that was made back at the start of the quarter, April, was "hastily formulated."
He believes that we will see iPad shipments actually exceed iPhone shipments. After all, businesses are adopting the iPad as an alternative to a desktop computer and thus are buying thousands at a time. The iPhone isn't a huge hit for businesses. It also helps that the iPad is still the only tablet that people really know about; most customers don't know of the latest Samsung or Motorola tablet but they do know of the iPad, thanks to heavy advertising by Apple.
Wolf also notes educational institutions are bulk buying iPads, thanks to the wide range of educational apps available. The $399 16GB iPad 2 has also done extremely well for Apple, according to Wolf.
Wolf has bumped up his iPhone estimates from 27 million units to 28 million units, which means iPad sales haven't yet beaten iPhone sales. This is still down from 35 million iPhone's shipped in March.
We can expect the earnings report from Apple to arrive on July the 24th.
