In a note to clients — as reported by “Barron’s” (http://macte.ch/he6uk) — Needham & Company analyst Charles Wolf says he’s raised his Apple estimates to reflect higher iPad and Mac shipments in the current quarter and the September quarter.
He raised his iPad forecast for the third fiscal quarter from 7.5 million to nine million units. Wolf cut his iPhone estimate for the fiscal fourth quarter from 17.5 million to 16 million unit, assuming Apple will seek to reduce channel inventory before introducing the iPhone 5 sometime in the quarter, presumably after Labor day.
The analyst is increasing his third quarter Mac estimate to 4.25 million units from 3.75 million, to match an historical 16% average increase he’s observed over the last five years. Macs have shown a 15.6%, rise quarter to quarter, in fiscal quarter four, so Wolf raised his number to 4.9 million from a prior 4.5 million.