Apple's iPad shipments could hit new low in first quarter - report
The downward trend in iPad sales is expected to continue through the first quarter of this year, with at least one firm expecting Apple to ship just 9.8 million tablets in the period.
Despite the potential slip -- which would represent a 20 percent year-over-year decline -- Apple would still hold 21 percent of the market, according to DigiTimes Research. Samsung is expected to come second with 14 percent.
The lion's share of shipments would belong to 7-inch tablets, the publication believes, with 7.9-inch devices like the iPad mini making up 14 percent. Those with displays above 11 inches, including the iPad Pro, would take 11 percent.
Those numbers match up well with predictions from other sources, including oft-correct analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities.
Kuo expects Apple to ship between 40 and 42 million iPads in 2016, a decline of 16 percent year-over-year. Revenues would remain strong, he expects, thanks to increased average sale prices from the iPad Pro.
Last month, Apple reported sales of 16.1 million iPads over the holidays. That was a sharp 25 percent yearly decline, but CFO Luca Maestri noted that Apple maintains a solid grip on the U.S. tablet market with an 85 percent share.
Despite the potential slip -- which would represent a 20 percent year-over-year decline -- Apple would still hold 21 percent of the market, according to DigiTimes Research. Samsung is expected to come second with 14 percent.
The lion's share of shipments would belong to 7-inch tablets, the publication believes, with 7.9-inch devices like the iPad mini making up 14 percent. Those with displays above 11 inches, including the iPad Pro, would take 11 percent.
Those numbers match up well with predictions from other sources, including oft-correct analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities.
Kuo expects Apple to ship between 40 and 42 million iPads in 2016, a decline of 16 percent year-over-year. Revenues would remain strong, he expects, thanks to increased average sale prices from the iPad Pro.
Last month, Apple reported sales of 16.1 million iPads over the holidays. That was a sharp 25 percent yearly decline, but CFO Luca Maestri noted that Apple maintains a solid grip on the U.S. tablet market with an 85 percent share.
Comments
Though that's still far from an event headliner, especially in light of these sales numbers. However, maybe that's the plan, keep people talking about the iPad. On the other hand, releasing that updated iPad closer to the holidays would probably result in more sales.
The number of iPads beings sold per quarter may be low, but I can pretty much guarantee that any company (i.e. Scamscum) would KILL to have those kind of sales every quarter of their garbage.
I will upgrade the moment the new model become available. The iPad 2, the model with the largest installed base as far as I know, is totally obsolete right now, mine is slow, some pages in safari don't work properly. just yesterday I bookmarked an article linked from Daring Firewall, I tried three times to upload it, and didn't worked. I tried in my 6th gen iPod Touch and loaded fast and perfectly well, with the pictures and all. SO IMHO, there are reasons to upgrade right now, at least from the people using the iPad 2. is heavy, the screen is not retina and its getting really obsolete.
iPad has the potential to change the tools that many in business use - where a PC might have been the "only" tool, now there is a choice of smart phone, tablet, or PC (or all of these for a subset). For those who write code, live in spreadsheets, or create documentation - clearly the iPad is at best a supplementary tool. But for those in mobile or field professions - anywhere you are moving a bit or interfacing with customers - the tablet may be the best of the mobile & computing worlds. We read about businesses all the time deploying iPads in these cases. Adding Pencil support across the lineup over time will increase the usefulness in many areas beyond "artists".
From a volume perspective, iPad will always remain well behind the iPhone, but that doesn't mean that its adoption / installed base won't grow & from that you get a reasonable business of some newcomers + mostly upgrades over time, as the PC industry has. This is likely why Tim is indicating that iPad will start to grow again later this year.
Compare the original personal computers from the 70s with the latest 5K iMacs. Or the original mobile phones with the latest iPhone 6s. If the iPad 1 was generationally equivalent to a Sinclair ZX80 then what's the future iPad equivalent that delivers as great of a relative delta in improvements that the latest iMac delivers over the old knuckle dragging Sinclair? I see the iPad being as fundamental to personal computing as the wheel is to transportation, at least until hovercraft become the norm.
That being said, I still won't buy an iPad Pro until they offer a 256 GB or larger model, preferably 512 GB. With all my 128 GB devices withering down to less than 5 GB free storage I need to have more onboard storage to feel that I'm taking enough of a bump to justify the purchase. It may be silly but it's really that simple of a decision.
Well, it's simple it's got the same storage and when it was released in 2010. 16gb. That's right. $499 got an iPad with 16gb of storage in 2010. Fast forward 6 years, 2016 the iPad Air 2 is still $499 for 16gb. In six years iPad has never been upgraded!!!
What is Apple thinking? How the hell do you expect people to buy a new iPad that has the same painfully limited 16gb of storage? Yes, there are retina screens, faster processors, thinner and lighter etc. But the fact remains, when clicking the BUY button on the Apple Store, a buyer is faced with 3 choices only. Color, Storage, and Wi-Fi/Cellular. So if someone has an iPad that's full of apps/media and wants a new one, when they go shopping they learn that they have to spend more than $499 to get more than the measly 16gb of storage. Obviously, some people do that, but the mass of people really just want to get more storage for the base price. For god's sake, you can get a 32gb flash drive for under $10 on Amazon and a 128gb for $30!!! Yes, we know that the flash storage in the iPad is better and faster, but the general perception is the iPad with 16gb of storage is overpriced and the upgrades to 64gb and 128gb are overpriced too.
Apple needs to get back to what made the iPad great, which was giving amazing value. iPads need to start at 64gb with 128gb and 256gb the upgrades. Then you will see an uptick in iPad sales. Yes, they went part way with the iPad Pro at 32gb and 128gb, but that should have been 64gb and 256gb.
Everyone I know with an iPad has to go through the process of deleting Apps and Media in a regular cycle just so that can buy new Apps and download new media. That just does not make for a good experience...
That said, the article states the quarter could be *just* 9.8M units. "Just." "JUST!" 9.8M units in one quarter is what Microsoft would love to achieve with it's "super duper successful amazing product" that wowed every tech writer and Apple-hater alike so much so that 9.8M units in one quarter for Microsoft would be an astronomical increase compared to where they are today, but for Apple to "just" sell 9.8M units is abysmal, a total failure on the part of Tim Cook to mismanage a company so badly that a quarter "just" achieved sales of 9.8M units of one of its products.
Is anyone else baffled by the double standards out there as much as I am?
Who'd have guessed that!
However, in that time, no other product has come close to it.
So so so true. It's baffling to think about.
Apple under Tim Cook only knows how to produce something cheap while offering very little feature gains over previous gens. Apple also have taken a back seat to inventing ideas instead they turn to acquisitions or lazy way of buying ideas like Beats. Why can't Apple reinvent the headphones?
Apple TV looks like another failed idea because Apple wants upfront profits from the networks and they say "No thanks."
Apple Music has only made Spotify to gain even more subscribers. The Watch is another failed launch, if they made the Watch a standalone no iPhone necessary device than it can work. Now Fitbit and other companies will keep selling because they don't need a smartphone to work.