Details of the next-generation iPad “are in line with expectation,” however an early shipping date caught some analyst off-guard, one prominent Apple analyst told investors Wednesday afternoon.
The additional news that Apple had sold the 100 millionth iPhone also mirrored Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster’s outlook for 16.2 million sales of the iconic handset during the March fiscal quarter.
The lack of any price change or “evolutionary additions” to the initial iPad likely means the first tablet will be phased out quickly, ABI Research analyst Jeff Orr noted. Although the addition of video cameras, a dual-core processor and HDMI video output keeps the iPad 2 in the running with other tablets, it is really Apple’s ecosystem and integration with other Apple products that differentiates the company, Orr said.
The absence of a lower price is because Apple “feels they have a lack of competition,” Orr told us.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
