14 DAY TRIAL // The next-generation iPad launching tomorrow won’t ship in large quantities initially, according to research done by KGI Securities. The iPad mini won’t be much of an upgrade either, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo notes.
At 10:00 AM PDT tomorrow, Apple’s executives will be taking the stage at Town Hall inside the company’s Cupertino campus to discuss the latest developments on the tablet front, among other things.
iPad Air 2 supply constraints
KGI Securities analyst Ming Chi Kuo says Apple indeed has a new version of the iPad Air planned for tomorrow. He and his fellow analysts at KGI expect the tablet to be a significant upgrade, but he says there won’t be many units to ship at first because of manufacturing hurdles. That is, if you consider 7 – 9 million units to be a small number. And for Apple, it is.
“Of the new products, we think the market will be more interested in iPad Air 2. However, as the poor yield rate of anti-reflective coating cover lens has delayed mass production, we estimate 2014 shipments of iPad Air 2 of 7- 9mn units, lower than the 12mn units of the then-new iPad Air shipments in 2013,” Kuo writes.
“We thus expect iPad Air 2 to contribute less to the supply chain than iPad Air did last year. We also don’t expect the event to boost supply chain shares much,” the analyst adds.
iPad mini upgrade deemed insignificant
Among the planned upgrades for tomorrow is also the second-generation iPad mini with Retina display. The tablet will receive a spec bump, but nothing major according to Kuo. The reason? The iPad Air's “contribution to Apple's sales and earnings.” Another reason is production of the upcoming 12.9-inch iPad. Apple needs all the manpower it can get.
27-inch iMac
As far as the desktop upgrades are concerned, Kuo sees the rumored 27-inch Retina iMac materializing at Apple’s October 16 event.
He says that the company has plans to equip the 21-inch version with a Retina display as well, but that its focus is currently the larger version for two reasons: making both at the same time is a daunting task (mainly because of problems with the Retina display yield rates) and the larger version has better chances of selling in large numbers, as it is targeted at audiences that truly need it and (perhaps most importantly) can afford it. Kuo notes that the computer will ship by the end of 2014.
We’ll be on hand tomorrow providing full coverage of the event.