iPad 2 Release Date in 2011

According to Digitimes, the expected iPad 2 release date is end of the first quarter of 2011 or the beginning of the second. Mass production is to start as early as the later half of January. Further, iPad 2 will now support three versions Wi-Fi, UMTS (ATT) and CDMA (Verizon).

Since Apple’s upstream supply chain is estimated to ship about 16 million iPads in 2010, the sources expects about 2-3 million iPad units of inventory will remain in the channel rolling over into 2011. Since Apple will gradually stop the production of iPad after January and launch iPad 2 by the end of the first quarter or the beginning of the second, the remaining iPad inventory should be able to satisfy demand during that period of time.