Another Winner for Cupertino?

Apple will likely ship 2.2 million iTablets in 2010, according to an estimate by Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall, though he categorized that forecast as "conservative." Shipments should begin in or around March 2009, he expects.

The iTablet's sales will be between US$1 billion and $2 billion for 2010, he estimates. "I don't think it will be huge," he told MacNewsWorld. Total sales for calendar 2010 will exceed $53 billion, he said. That will be 12.8 percent higher than Marshall's estimate for calendar year 2009 sales, which he pegs at $47.2 billion.

For Cupertino, perhaps, sales of $1 billion to $2 billion don't mean much, but any other company would be happy to have a product that performs that well in the first nine months of its introduction.

An Android Advance, a Patent Punch and More Tablet Temblors

Talk that Apple is inching ever closer to making its rumored tablet computer a reality is making the rounds. In fact, Cupertino could sell more than 2 million tablets in 2010, according to the expectations of analyst Brian Marshall.

Meanwhile, Apple should continue to gain strength in other areas with the new iMacs it introduced last week and the strength of its iTunes App Store, which now carries more than 100,000 apps.

Though it remains on a general upward trend since the summer, Apple's stock has cooled down a bit from the heights it hit last week following the company's strong Q4 fiscal report.