Report says Apple iPad 2 sales missed company's expectation for Q3

Despite setting a new record by selling 13 million Apple iPad 2 units in the third quarter, the Cupertino based company failed to live up to external expectations for tablet sales in the period. During the same quarter last year, 9.25 million copies of the iPad were shipped. On a sequential basis, the 13 million tablets represent a 36.8% increase from this year's second quarter results. Wall Street was much easier to please as analysts were looking for Apple to ship 11 million units of its tablet, a figure handily topped by the tech giant.

A chart that accompanied the story shows that the entire tablet market has been experiencing a slowdown in sequential growth. From a 60.9% gain in tablets shipped from Q1 to Q2 this year, the estimated 18.7 million in total tablet sales world wide in the third quarter represents a 27.5% improvement in shipments from the previous three month period. To show how the Apple iPad 2 dominates this market, removing sales of Apple's tablet results in only a 10.1% gain in estimated sequential sales for the third quarter.

The tablet market might get a shot in the arm during the fourth quarter when the budget priced Amazon Kindle Fire gets launched. Set to be released on November 15th for $199.99, the Kindlle Fire makes extensive use of Amazon sold apps. content and cloud services.

source: DigiTimes