Warm Up the Superlatives for Apple’s Next Quarter
Apple’s next quarter may be the best in company history, driven by what Ticonderoga analyst Brian White says was its “best November ever.”
White’s checks with Apple’s top Taiwan-based suppliers show a massive spike in component orders for the month — well above anything previously charted.
Typically, Apple’s supply chain shows a 2 percent increase in sales from month to month. But this past November, sales rose 17 percent.
That’s a more than an 8x increase.
Which obviously suggests some pretty strong demand trends in the run-up to the holiday shopping season. And Apple is certainly well poised to exploit them. As White observes, “The company’s portfolio for the holiday season is the hottest we have ever seen with the new iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and MacBook Air.”
So Apple’s first quarter will likely be a big one. And it will likely set a new record. Which means 2011 will be much like 2010, and 2009 before it. The fourth quarter of the calendar year has always been Apple’s strongest. No reason to believe it will be any different this year.