Analysts estimate Apple sold 25M iPads in the last quarter

[RaduTyrsina]

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Two days ago, we shared with you a roundup of estimates regarding the total number if iPhone sales in the holiday quarter that has ended. Philip Elmer-Dewitt from the Fortune publication was the one to gather all the estimates in a single place and he has did the same for the iPad. Elmer-Dewitt collected unit sales estimates from 45 Apple analysts consisting of 28 professionals and 17 independent ones.

The average estimate among all the analysts is 25 million iPads, up 10% from the same quarter last year. Last year, the pros were right and the indies wrong. The consensus was 24 million iPads, with the pros at 22.8 million and the amateurs at 25.5 million. The correct number, according to Apple, was 22.86 million.

As you can see for yourself in the above graphic, the average estimate for Q1 2014 is slightly above 25 million iPad units, which represents a 10 percent increase from the previous year, when the actual sales results were at 22.86 million iPads. We can see that the most optimistic analysts estimates that Apple will report as much as 28 million sold iPads while the most pessimistic ones say that Apple has sold only 21 million iPad units.

However, it seems that the iPads were a more challenging market to forecast, as the iPad Air didn’t ship until the beginning of November. missing one third of the quarter. Also, the new iPad Mini has been commercially launched 12 days later and was in short supply.

Source: Fortune