Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Wednesday:

iPad 2 Expectations Boosted: Customers continue to line up around the block at Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) stores to wait for the latest iPad 2 shipments. The tablet, released March 10, was a guaranteed success for Apple, thanks to steady demand for the original model it replaced, but few industry analysts were prepared for iPad 2 demand to so dramatically outstrip supply. In a Tuesday note to investors titled “AAPL: Shock and Awe,” Needham analyst Charlie Wolf tripled his expected 2011 sales for the tablet PC — up to 30 million iPads by the end of the year. That success will carry over into 2012 as well. Wolf expects Apple to sell 40 million iPads across the next fiscal year. He expects his projections will translate to increased earnings per share, and he raised his expected EPS for Apple by $1 to $23.25, while he expects $27.35 EPS in 2012.

Low on Batteries: While the Japanese earthquake and tsunami did not significantly impact iPad 2 supplies as expected, a Tuesday report from The Wall Street Journal says that the company’s portable media player, the iPod, may be experiencing some supply chain woes. The lithium-polymer batteries used to power the iPod Touch and other models, in particular, will be in limited supply. Kureha, the Japanese manufacturer of a polymer used to make the batteries, had to shut down its facilities following the disaster earlier in March. Kureha’s facilities were not damaged by either the quake or the tsunami, but the port it relies on for shipping was heavily damaged. As Mac Rumors noted, it’s unusual that the iPod was singled out in the WSJ‘s report, as the same lithium battery is used in Apple’s other popular portable devices, the iPad and iPhone.

As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at @ajohnagnello and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook.