Apple iPad Production Could Hit 2.5M Units/Month, Analyst Says

Apple (AAPL) is cranking up production of the iPad.

Sterne Agee analyst Vijay Rakesh writes this morning that his checks with the company’s supply chain finds that the company has been been producing the tablet at a rate of 1 million to 1.5 million units a month – higher than most estimates – and that production could crank up to 2.5 million units a month or more in the September quarter. He says that some previous manufacturing bottlenecks have been solved, though memory remains “a constraint.”

Meanwhile, Rakesh also says that checks indicate that new iPhones are coming in the September quarter, which is consistent with investor expectations, the recent leak of a next-gen phone and a sharp price cut on 16 GB 3GS phones at Wal-Mart. But he notes that builds on the new phone “are barely starting.”

Apple is expected to unveil the next iPhone on June 7, at its developers conference in San Francisco.

AAPL is off $7.54, or 3.1%, to $239.22.