Foxconn expected to make 20 million iPad 2s in the third quarter

Contract manufacturer Foxconn, which makes Apple gadgets, is expected to manufacture twenty million iPad 2s in the third quarter, more than doubling the 9.25 million iPad units Apple sold during the previous quarter of this year. The tidbit came in a DigiTimes report today:

For the third quarter, Foxconn is expected to ship 20 million units of iPad 2 to Apple, a growth of 60% sequentially, and the orders should be the major growth driver for the company in the second half.

Foxconn just reported its financial results for the first half of this year. Net profits reached NT$27.38 billion, or about $945.93 million, but earnings per share decline 20 percent from the year-ago quarter, down to NT$2.58. For the Christmas quarter, however…

…Seeking Alpha’s Jason Schwarz sees Apple shipping 22 million iPads. If those estimates prove true, Apple will have shipped 42 million tablets just in the second half of this year, which is a run rate of 80+ million iPads. If that didn’t blow your mind, consider this: Since April 2010 and through December 2010 Apple sold fourteen million iPads. Yes, the third – and especially the fourth quarter – are nice seasonal spikes for consumer electronics, but any quarter is a monster quarter for iPad these days. And with the run rate approaching a hundred million units, iPad is clearly off to a great start and defining the market for portable computing devices. And when you remember that worldwide PC market this year has been estimated at under 350 million units, iPad is already capturing around a quarter. No wonder Hewlett-Packard pulled out of the PC making business.