Apple is currently dominating the tablet market and the dominance will continue in this quarter as the Cupertino giant is expected to sell 20 million units of the iPad, according to Needham & Company analyst Charlie Wolf.
Wolf, in a note sent to investors on Thursday, increased his June iPad shipment forecast from 13.5 million units to 20 million units, admitting that his April estimation was "hastily formulated."
"In our view, it's only a matter of time before iPad shipments exceed iPhone shipments," Wolf said. "The iPad is invading the business market at a much faster pace than the iPhone. In addition, the iPad will launch in China on July 20th. This should provide a significant boost in sales now that Apple is providing Chinese languages and services on its iOS platform."
If Wolf's prediction turns out to be correct, Apple will sell more than double the 9.25 million iPads that it sold in the same quarter in last year and will also create a record for iPad sales in any quarter beating the 15 million iPads the company sold during the holiday season of 2011. The reason for the success of iPad is the popularity of the Apple slate in both businesses and education institutions, Wolf points.
According to Wolf, the $399 16-gigabyte iPad 2 is still the bestseller for the company. Moreover, he believes that Apple's tablets have been adopted much more by businesses than the iPhones.
Not only iPads, but iPhones will also do better business in the June quarter and according to Wolf the Cupertino giant will ship 28 million units of iPhones.
"The assumption underlying our forecast of a sequential quarterly decline is that some customers have begun to postpone their purchases of an iPhone 4S in advance of a much widely publicized introduction of the new iPhone this fall," Wolf mentioned.
