The fall 2013 debut of the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display looks to have helped Apple’s tablets achieve double-digit year-over-year gains during the holiday shopping season.
A survey of 20 buy-side investors conducted by Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster last week indicates consensus sales estimates of 24 million to 25 million units. If accurate, that would mean a 10 percent bump in sales from the 22.9 million units Apple sold in the first quarter of fiscal 2013.
Munster’s numbers match up pretty well by those collected in a recent poll conducted by Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt.
Sales might have skyrocketed more, sans the severe constraints on supplies of the Retina equipped iPad mini. The Retina mini faced shortages well into December, and the iPad Air didn’t hit shelves until November 1st.
Apple is set to unveil their first quarter financials next Monday, Jan. 27. MacTrast will be here, giving you live coverage.
