There were an estimated 578,000 new iMacs shipped in the fourth quarter of 2012, dropping 42.8% on quarter and 54.8% on year mainly due to delayed supplies of key components, especially panels, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers. As the supply of key components began to significantly increase in November 2012, iMac shipments are expected to rebound in the first quarter of 2013, the sources said.

Key component supplies are expected to remain strong in January 2013, but will decline in February due to fewer working days in the month because of the Lunar New Year holidays, the sources added.

Apple recently announced that its Mac series product shipments had reached 4.06 million units for the period from October to December 2012, indicating that the company's MacBook product shipments were about 3.48 million units during the period, up 15.7% sequentially, the sources noted.

As for iPads, Apple sold 22.9 million units from October 2012 to December 2012, helping the company to achieve annual sales of 65.7 million units in 2012, accounting for more than half of the tablet market.

In 2012, Apple is estimated to have shipped 13.03 million MacBooks with a growth of 7.98% on year, and in 2013 the volume has a chance to rise 30% and reach 17 million units, the sources noted.