It appears as though the resurgence in iPad sales that we first spotted last year has a chance to continue on. The pandemic helped with the recovery of the tablet industry as more businessmen and students decided on using these devices to work from home. And at the end of the day, when all of the work is done, tablet users could turn to their slates to play mobile games, stream videos, listen to music, and more.
Demand from the pandemic led to an expansion in demand and lead times for the iPad and the Mac
Lead times for some current Apple devices
This is reflected in the longer lead times for deliveries of iPads and Macs. The lead time is the number of days between the placement of an order, and when the order is received by the buyer. The longer the lead time, the longer it takes to receive an ordered device which is indicative of a shortage in supply.
Lead times for the iPhone remain in balance at one business day
Meanwhile, lead times for the iPhone are in balance at one business day during the March quarter across the iPhone family. Also showing balance in supply and demand with a lead time of one business day are the iPad Air and iPad mini, and the 13-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
Munster writes in his report that “While interpreting lead times is more art than science, we’ve observed that during periods of supply demand equilibrium, lead times are typically less than 2 business days. Keep in mind, June is typically the slowest quarter for Apple, so if there was ever a quarter for the company to catch up supply with demand, it’d be this one.”
There appears to be enough demand to go around to keep iPad and Mac sales rising even with the demand for tablets beginning to ebb from the strong work from home environment that originally created the strong lead times for tablets, laptops and desktop computers.
