A report from industry newspaper DigiTimes states that Foxconn has received instruction to begin shipping the next generation iPad within 100 days. Initial shipments of iPad 2 as it has been dubbed are said to be 400,000 - 600,000.
DigiTimes' sources say that Apple originally wanted to begin mass production in January but has had an issue with the firmware which remains in testing. Apple is now said to be aiming for February 2011.
DigiTimes goes onto note that Apple's current shipments are higher on the supply side than the channel sales "indicating that Apple also has potential inventory issues". Apple reportedly has no intention of stopping production of the current iPad leading to predictions that the next iPad will ship during April.