Apple Just Cut iPad Orders By 25%

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Apple Inc. is cutting orders to vendors in the supply chain for its iPad tablet computer, a move that may result in slower sales for companies including Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. said in a report.

Several supply-chain vendors indicated in the past two weeks that Apple, the world’s biggest company by market value, lowered fourth-quarter iPad orders 25 percent, the first such cut that analysts at JPMorgan’s electronic manufacturing services team in Hong Kong said they have ever seen. The report did not list the affected companies.

For a vendor such as Hon Hai, that could mean a drop to 13 million units in the fourth quarter, from 17 million units in the third quarter, JPMorgan analysts wrote in the Sept. 25 report. The report said JPMorgan U.S. analyst Mark Moskowitz, who covers Apple, does not expect to lower his projection of 10.9 million to 12 million units of iPad shipments in the third and fourth quarters after the supply chain adjustments.
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