Apple Inc.’s shipments of a new version of its iPad tablet computer may be delayed to June from April because of “production bottlenecks” at manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Yuanta Securities Co. said.
The delay arose after Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple made design changes before the Lunar New Year, according to a report by Vincent Chen and Alison Chen, analysts at Yuanta.
Jill Tan, an Apple spokeswoman in Hong Kong, declined to comment on the report.
Edmund Ding, a spokesman for Taipei-based Hon Hai, didn’t answer calls to his Taiwan and China mobile phones.
“Our checks suggest new issues are being encountered with the new production and it is taking time to resolve them,” said Chen in the report. “As a number of Android 3.0 tablets are being launched in April and May, the delay in iPad 2 shipments may give the Android camp a brief window of opportunity.”
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Apple will unveil the iPad on March 2 in San Francisco, the scene of many such Apple events.
The new product is thinner, lighter, has more memory and uses faster chips than its predecessor. It also has a front-facing camera that would enable videoconferencing, the newspaper said.
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