LG Unable to Keep Up with iPad Demand

Apple has a tiger by the tail with its iPad and suppliers are now complaining they can’t push them out the door fast enough to meet demand. The head of LG Display, a division of LG Electronics, told Reuters “Apple may have to delay launches of the iPad for some countries due to tight component supplies and strong demand.”

LG Display CEO Kwon Young-soo added that although it is considering upping production lines, “overall supply is likely to remain tight until early next year.”

Then there are the analysts bowled over by the iPad’s success. Researchers at iSuppli bumped up their sales expectations by 82 percent to almost 13 million iPads in 2010. “The only limitation on iPad sales now is production, not demand,” iSuppli director of monitor research, Rhoda Alexander, said. Indeed, just how fast the tablet devices can be made is the only factor controlling the iPad’s sales, she adds.

Analysts at Forrester were also taken aback, now calling last month’s assumption of 3.5 million iPads would sell in all of 2010 “too conservative” given Apple’s announcement of 3.2 million units sold just in the June quarter. Despite the fact Apple was counting worldwide iPad sales, Forrester researcher Sarah Rotman Epps writes the iPad sales are “a steamroller of momentum.”

“The iPad isn’t behaving like other consumer devices: It has a steamroller of momentum behind it that indicates incredibly strong demand for this entirely new form factor,” Epps wrote in a blog post.

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[9to5Mac, Barron's]

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