contrary to most it seems, I picked up an iPad Mini 4 last week to replace an aging Mini 1 that struggled to play the latest games and had a weird ghost-touch glitch. 3 iPad minis in the house now, just like I cling to my 4" iPhone, I find the bigger iPads too big for everyday use imho. Hopefully apple won't abandon us compact-device lovers.
iPad had the strongest start in Apple history and was positioned to take over technology! Shipping 10 million in a quarter is a joke. For it's potential 10 million shouldn't be "growth" it's depressing.
These charts show the first quarters of iPod, iPhone and iPad sales. iPad was clearly destined for phenomenal success
What happened? Apple treats iPhone like the baby of the family and spoils it while throwing iPad to the back as an afterthought. No it wasn't bigger iPhones, it's the fact Apple doesn't do enough to exploit iPads strengths and even cheap outs on the hardware. I can't believe a product that should be a high end computing device is CHEAPER than iPhone. Really shows what product is getting all the attention.
Apple could easily sell a new $999+ iPad with the most high end components and features needed with a display that large and powerful. A movie studio, an art studio, a recording studio in your backpack, exclusive features, retail push, auto push, hospital equipment, anything Apple can think up to exploit the potential iPad has lost.
iPad Pro helped a little but the truth is Apple isn't doing enough and that means consumers don't have enough reason to own one.
Yeah... I mostly agree.
I think iPad sales took off much faster than they anticipated and they didn’t fully understand why that was happening. I think that lack of understanding meant they didn’t know where to take the OS. There were, and really still are, a lot of important gaps in the software that prevent the iPad from reaching its full potential. For example, my wife borrowed my iPad Pro for a business trip and her conclusion was that she wants a Surface Pro so that she can do crazy things like have two documents open in Word at the same time. I really can’t blame her one bit — of course that should be possible! I personally am sticking with the iPad Pro because I like the fact that it’s thinner and lighter, plus I’m strongly attached to the Apple ecosystem (and I don’t like Windows). But I definitely want these goofy gaps in capability filled in.
Despite my criticisms, I will say this, though — I appreciate what Apple is trying to do here. I think in the long run it will be good that they resisted the pressure to just put MacOS on a tablet. They are being thoughtful and deliberate as they add functionality to iOS for the iPad. My hope is that in 5 years time, the iPad will be able to do just about all of the things that fall in the category of “stuff I can do on a MacBook that I wish I could do on an iPad,” but while still being less complex / easier to use than a Mac. In other words, I don’t think Apple has arrived at the sweet spot yet, but they’re on the right track.
iPad had the strongest start in Apple history and was positioned to take over technology! Shipping 10 million in a quarter is a joke. For it's potential 10 million shouldn't be "growth" it's depressing.
These charts show the first quarters of iPod, iPhone and iPad sales. iPad was clearly destined for phenomenal success
What happened? Apple treats iPhone like the baby of the family and spoils it while throwing iPad to the back as an afterthought. No it wasn't bigger iPhones, it's the fact Apple doesn't do enough to exploit iPads strengths and even cheap outs on the hardware. I can't believe a product that should be a high end computing device is CHEAPER than iPhone. Really shows what product is getting all the attention.
Apple could easily sell a new $999+ iPad with the most high end components and features needed with a display that large and powerful. A movie studio, an art studio, a recording studio in your backpack, exclusive features, retail push, auto push, hospital equipment, anything Apple can think up to exploit the potential iPad has lost.
iPad Pro helped a little but the truth is Apple isn't doing enough and that means consumers don't have enough reason to own one.
I hope your enthusiasm doesn’t conclude with asking for a mouse port, monitor port, smart card reader, micro-mini-macro USB-A to C, fans and Alcantara cloth...
Cali, you are entitled to your opinion, but I don't believe that iPad would have come anywhere near iPhone in units shipped no matter what they did. The smartphone became the must have CE/mobile device - it is more compact and able to be carried on the person - and so the target is everyone. PC's and tablets (however you want to do your computing) are not as large of a market. iPad sales started more strongly, but multiple reasons why that could have been. Then it saturated out, and after the Mini sales fell off due to (in part) larger iPhones, the units declined.
Could Apple have improved the s/w more in the past? Certainly. And it would have perhaps made the decline less. But you can't take a 10.5" iPad from 2017 and say they should have made that in 2015. It doesn't work that way.
These charts are fairly simply explained by replacement cycles.
The "average" iPhone is turned over about every two years. The average iPad goes for over four. The technologies and speeds are about parallel, Apple hasn't paid less attention to the iPad -- it just is handled differently by the user than the iPhone is.
Looking at the numbers is interesting, because last quarter, the iPad was up 15% YoY. This quarter it was up 11% YoY.
so, two thoughts. One is the hope that we aren’t seeing a short term increase, with next quarter seeing lower growth again.
two is that with the 15% last quarter, we saw a 3% increase in iPad revenue, while with 11% this quarter, we saw a substantial growth in revenue of 14%. So, last quarter’s growth was mainly led by the new 9.7” iPad, while growth this quarter was more even between that one and the iPad Pros. That is a good thing, but has me wondering if the 9.7 sales are tapering off, while Pro sales are growing.
of course, I don’t want to see the 9.7 slowing, because that’s a lot of older iPads out there to be replaced, as well as people who have none now. Though, it was pointed out in the conference call that 54% of the tablets bought in the USA, are iPads, and that 70% of those looking to buy a tablet are looking to buy iPads.
I assume that is 54% of all tablets in a market that includes extreme budget models like the $50 Fire tablets from Amazon. When you consider the price differences from an iPad ASP of $467 and likely sub $100 for everything else, that is remarkable. The last data point was something like 80+% of tablets over $200. So the iPad really has achieved iPod dominance in the US. Now it is growing that globally.
Outside de of the Surface line, which is more targeted at PC users (and enterprise), you don't here much about any other brands in this space.
I assume it includes the Fire. They just said the US market.
there are hardly any Surface Pros sold. Looking at the numbers, it’s not likely that Microsoft ever sold more than about 3.5 million in a year.
Oh, I know the Surface line is only selling about 1M/quarter. My comment was just about "brand awareness".
I don’t think there is much. Just ask friends who aren’t geeks about the Microsoft Surface product lines, and likely, they’ve never heard of them. But ask about the iPad, and they will.
Perhaps if Apple will update certain Macs more than once every three or four years, they'll see growth there too.
Uh... did I miss something or did you miss something? There was YoY growth in Mac sales.
Yes, the best year ever.
I just love IDC and Gartner. They always get Apple’s sales wrong. IDC predicted that Mac sales would be down 1% this quarter, though Windows sales would be down 4%, giving the Mac a tiny market share boost. Instead, Mac sales were up by 10%.
iPad had the strongest start in Apple history and was positioned to take over technology! Shipping 10 million in a quarter is a joke. For it's potential 10 million shouldn't be "growth" it's depressing.
These charts show the first quarters of iPod, iPhone and iPad sales. iPad was clearly destined for phenomenal success
What happened? Apple treats iPhone like the baby of the family and spoils it while throwing iPad to the back as an afterthought. No it wasn't bigger iPhones, it's the fact Apple doesn't do enough to exploit iPads strengths and even cheap outs on the hardware. I can't believe a product that should be a high end computing device is CHEAPER than iPhone. Really shows what product is getting all the attention.
Apple could easily sell a new $999+ iPad with the most high end components and features needed with a display that large and powerful. A movie studio, an art studio, a recording studio in your backpack, exclusive features, retail push, auto push, hospital equipment, anything Apple can think up to exploit the potential iPad has lost.
iPad Pro helped a little but the truth is Apple isn't doing enough and that means consumers don't have enough reason to own one.
We know what happened. Your anger is misplaced.
its not Apple’s fault that the iPad 2 was so good that people refused to upgrade. Who expected that? Even the retina models weren’t enough to persuade people to upgrade. And people easily change their minds about things.
when the iPad came out, it was much cheaper than anyone thought it would be, and so drove a lot of sales. Other manufacturers had to scrap what they were doing because of that. And Android didn’t support tablets for years.
but before too long, $500 just seemed to be too much. So a total reversal. iPad market share began to go down, because people were holding on to their older models, and suddenly cheap Android models were good enough for the usual browsing, reading book, e-mail and messaging, and watching video. Who needed a tablet that cost, as a minimum, $500?
we need to be happy that Apple was able to see the problem and change course. The difficulty Apple was having, was in thinking that one tablet line, in the large size, was good for consumers and organizations. It wasn’t. The small tablets which contributed to a lot of the growth, started to die when the iPhone 6+ came out. The 9.7” likely didn’t lose as many sales, but stagnated.
the first shot Apple gave was the well received 9.7” Pro. But from what I read in the Pro computer journals, it was too small for that purpose for much beyond very basic needs. The introduction of both Pro models later, solved that problem, and allowed Apple to come out with an iPad that was priced in a more popular consumer price category, which they couldn’t do before.
we’re seeing the results of that understanding they now have. I stand by my above posts, but if Apple can maintain a 10% growth in sales, with a consequent hefty growth in the dollars from those sales as we saw this quarter, then Apple’s new bifurcation strategy will be working. If they can somehow get the 9.7 down to $299, they will hit a number that looks much better than even the $329 of today, which should boost sales a fair amount. Meanwhile, the two Pro models seem to be doing quite well.
at the same time, Samsung has their top model as a copy of Apple’s 9.7, with their stylus included, for $600. Sales have been poor. Performance isn’t great. If that the best they can do, then Apple’s in a good place.
I'm waiting for Apple to add the 10.5" version to the "Refurbished & Clearance" part of the Apple Store. I feel like that's got to be coming up soon; it's been out long enough.
......iPad Pro helped a little but the truth is Apple isn't doing enough and that means consumers don't have enough reason to own one.
I hope your enthusiasm doesn’t conclude with asking for a mouse port, monitor port, smart card reader, micro-mini-macro USB-A to C, fans and Alcantara cloth...
Where in my post is any of that garbage mentioned? I'm thinking of the future(Movie production, AR, Game development) not 1982.
iPad had the strongest start in Apple history and was positioned to take over technology! Shipping 10 million in a quarter is a joke. For it's potential 10 million shouldn't be "growth" it's depressing. ......
Yeah I mostly agree...
I think iPad sales took off much faster than they anticipated and they didn’t fully understand why that was happening. I think that lack of understanding meant they didn’t know where to take the OS. There were, and really still are, a lot of important gaps in the software that prevent the iPad from reaching its full potential. For example, my wife borrowed my iPad Pro for a business trip and her conclusion was that she wants a Surface Pro so that she can do crazy things like have two documents open in Word at the same time. I really can’t blame her one bit — of course that should be possible! I personally am sticking with the iPad Pro because I like the fact that it’s thinner and lighter, plus I’m strongly attached to the Apple ecosystem (and I don’t like Windows). But I definitely want these goofy gaps in capability filled in.
Despite my criticisms, I will say this, though — I appreciate what Apple is trying to do here. I think in the long run it will be good that they resisted the pressure to just put MacOS on a tablet. They are being thoughtful and deliberate as they add functionality to iOS for the iPad. My hope is that in 5 years time, the iPad will be able to do just about all of the things that fall in the category of “stuff I can do on a MacBook that I wish I could do on an iPad,” but while still being less complex / easier to use than a Mac. In other words, I don’t think Apple has arrived at the sweet spot yet, but they’re on the right track.
There's so much Apple can do to differentiate iPad even more.
I believe something like the TrueDepth camera can allow game and movie studios to act out facial expressions to be transferred 1:1 to Digital without all those silly motion capture balls. With iPads bigger hardware, Apple can include a forward and back facing TrueDepth camera for studio work and include a new iPad edition of iMovie and Final Cut and maybe an App strictly for animation that utilizes all technologies including Pencil.
......iPad Pro helped a little but the truth is Apple isn't doing enough and that means consumers don't have enough reason to own one.
We know what happened. Your anger is misplaced.
its not Apple’s fault that the iPad 2 was so good that people refused to upgrade. Who expected that? Even the retina models weren’t enough to persuade people to upgrade. And people easily change their minds about things.
when the iPad came out, it was much cheaper than anyone thought it would be, and so drove a lot of sales. Other manufacturers had to scrap what they were doing because of that. And Android didn’t support tablets for years.
but before too long, $500 just seemed to be too much. So a total reversal. iPad market share began to go down, because people were holding on to their older models, and suddenly cheap Android models were good enough for the usual browsing, reading book, e-mail and messaging, and watching video. Who needed a tablet that cost, as a minimum, $500?
we need to be happy that Apple was able to see the problem and change course. The difficulty Apple was having, was in thinking that one tablet line, in the large size, was good for consumers and organizations. It wasn’t. The small tablets which contributed to a lot of the growth, started to die when the iPhone 6+ came out. The 9.7” likely didn’t lose as many sales, but stagnated.
the first shot Apple gave was the well received 9.7” Pro. But from what I read in the Pro computer journals, it was too small for that purpose for much beyond very basic needs. The introduction of both Pro models later, solved that problem, and allowed Apple to come out with an iPad that was priced in a more popular consumer price category, which they couldn’t do before.
we’re seeing the results of that understanding they now have. I stand by my above posts, but if Apple can maintain a 10% growth in sales, with a consequent hefty growth in the dollars from those sales as we saw this quarter, then Apple’s new bifurcation strategy will be working. If they can somehow get the 9.7 down to $299, they will hit a number that looks much better than even the $329 of today, which should boost sales a fair amount. Meanwhile, the two Pro models seem to be doing quite well.
at the same time, Samsung has their top model as a copy of Apple’s 9.7, with their stylus included, for $600. Sales have been poor. Performance isn’t great. If that the best they can do, then Apple’s in a good place.
I agree there but we need to not make excuses for Apple. There should be absolutely no reason for someone to consider a knockoff whether that's prize, size etc. iPad needs to be like how iPod was, there were $20 knockoffs and nobody wanted them.
You bring up something I forgot to mention: Reading. I waited years for Apple to bring a reading mode for iPad. Knowing Apple's engineering magic I knew it was possible. I waited too damn long and finally got a Kindle instead which lacks all the Apple magic but is easy on my eyes and a lot nicer to read on than my iPhone. I would have easily dropped a few more hundred dollars an an iPad that can display color e-ink or similar technology.
My last line said, "iPad Pro helped a little but the truth is Apple isn't doing enough and that means consumers don't have enough reason to own one."
......iPad Pro helped a little but the truth is Apple isn't doing enough and that means consumers don't have enough reason to own one.
I hope your enthusiasm doesn’t conclude with asking for a mouse port, monitor port, smart card reader, micro-mini-macro USB-A to C, fans and Alcantara cloth...
Where in my post is any of that garbage mentioned? I'm thinking of the future(Movie production, AR, Game development) not 1982.
iPad had the strongest start in Apple history and was positioned to take over technology! Shipping 10 million in a quarter is a joke. For it's potential 10 million shouldn't be "growth" it's depressing. ......
Yeah I mostly agree...
I think iPad sales took off much faster than they anticipated and they didn’t fully understand why that was happening. I think that lack of understanding meant they didn’t know where to take the OS. There were, and really still are, a lot of important gaps in the software that prevent the iPad from reaching its full potential. For example, my wife borrowed my iPad Pro for a business trip and her conclusion was that she wants a Surface Pro so that she can do crazy things like have two documents open in Word at the same time. I really can’t blame her one bit — of course that should be possible! I personally am sticking with the iPad Pro because I like the fact that it’s thinner and lighter, plus I’m strongly attached to the Apple ecosystem (and I don’t like Windows). But I definitely want these goofy gaps in capability filled in.
Despite my criticisms, I will say this, though — I appreciate what Apple is trying to do here. I think in the long run it will be good that they resisted the pressure to just put MacOS on a tablet. They are being thoughtful and deliberate as they add functionality to iOS for the iPad. My hope is that in 5 years time, the iPad will be able to do just about all of the things that fall in the category of “stuff I can do on a MacBook that I wish I could do on an iPad,” but while still being less complex / easier to use than a Mac. In other words, I don’t think Apple has arrived at the sweet spot yet, but they’re on the right track.
There's so much Apple can do to differentiate iPad even more.
I believe something like the TrueDepth camera can allow game and movie studios to act out facial expressions to be transferred 1:1 to Digital without all those silly motion capture balls. With iPads bigger hardware, Apple can include a forward and back facing TrueDepth camera for studio work and include a new iPad edition of iMovie and Final Cut and maybe an App strictly for animation that utilizes all technologies including Pencil.
......iPad Pro helped a little but the truth is Apple isn't doing enough and that means consumers don't have enough reason to own one.
We know what happened. Your anger is misplaced.
its not Apple’s fault that the iPad 2 was so good that people refused to upgrade. Who expected that? Even the retina models weren’t enough to persuade people to upgrade. And people easily change their minds about things.
when the iPad came out, it was much cheaper than anyone thought it would be, and so drove a lot of sales. Other manufacturers had to scrap what they were doing because of that. And Android didn’t support tablets for years.
but before too long, $500 just seemed to be too much. So a total reversal. iPad market share began to go down, because people were holding on to their older models, and suddenly cheap Android models were good enough for the usual browsing, reading book, e-mail and messaging, and watching video. Who needed a tablet that cost, as a minimum, $500?
we need to be happy that Apple was able to see the problem and change course. The difficulty Apple was having, was in thinking that one tablet line, in the large size, was good for consumers and organizations. It wasn’t. The small tablets which contributed to a lot of the growth, started to die when the iPhone 6+ came out. The 9.7” likely didn’t lose as many sales, but stagnated.
the first shot Apple gave was the well received 9.7” Pro. But from what I read in the Pro computer journals, it was too small for that purpose for much beyond very basic needs. The introduction of both Pro models later, solved that problem, and allowed Apple to come out with an iPad that was priced in a more popular consumer price category, which they couldn’t do before.
we’re seeing the results of that understanding they now have. I stand by my above posts, but if Apple can maintain a 10% growth in sales, with a consequent hefty growth in the dollars from those sales as we saw this quarter, then Apple’s new bifurcation strategy will be working. If they can somehow get the 9.7 down to $299, they will hit a number that looks much better than even the $329 of today, which should boost sales a fair amount. Meanwhile, the two Pro models seem to be doing quite well.
at the same time, Samsung has their top model as a copy of Apple’s 9.7, with their stylus included, for $600. Sales have been poor. Performance isn’t great. If that the best they can do, then Apple’s in a good place.
I agree there but we need to not make excuses for Apple. There should be absolutely no reason for someone to consider a knockoff whether that's prize, size etc. iPad needs to be like how iPod was, there were $20 knockoffs and nobody wanted them.
You bring up something I forgot to mention: Reading. I waited years for Apple to bring a reading mode for iPad. Knowing Apple's engineering magic I knew it was possible. I waited too damn long and finally got a Kindle instead which lacks all the Apple magic but is easy on my eyes and a lot nicer to read on than my iPhone. I would have easily dropped a few more hundred dollars an an iPad that can display color e-ink or similar technology.
My last line said, "iPad Pro helped a little but the truth is Apple isn't doing enough and that means consumers don't have enough reason to own one."
Sadly I became one of those consumers.
Telling the truth isn’t making excuses. This was an entirely new category of device. It was predicted that almost no one would want them, and that, at best, a few million a year would be sold. Apple defied predictions. It was also impossible to know how people would look at what they were. It wasn’t expected that they would have such long life cycles.
i find reading on these to be especially easy on my eyes. A problem is the way people set the screen brightness. If it’s too high, then you can get fatigue. That’s why book reading apps allow for separate brightness settings (and colors) from the general device setting. Use it correctly, and the screen is dandy.
e-ink sucks. I’m not sorry about saying that, because it’s true. The only thing it is good for is a book reader. Not a magazine reader, and not even a newspaper reader, but just a book reader. No one in their right mind would make a general purpose tablet with e-ink, or anything similar.
and you’re wrong about consumer use. The new 9.7 iPad is perfect for consumer use. It’s more powerful than any Android tablet, with a good screen. The price is right, and few consumers need anything more. It does make an excellent book reader, particularly inside, when lights are dim, and in bed, with the lights off, which is something that for any e-ink reader, even with their bad front lights, can’t be said of. Spending the high prices of the better book readers is a waste of money if you want to do anything other than to just read books. And if that’s all you want to do, then spend money on that book reader instead, and forget about real tablets altogether.
......iPad Pro helped a little but the truth is Apple isn't doing enough and that means consumers don't have enough reason to own one.
I hope your enthusiasm doesn’t conclude with asking for a mouse port, monitor port, smart card reader, micro-mini-macro USB-A to C, fans and Alcantara cloth...
Where in my post is any of that garbage mentioned? I'm thinking of the future(Movie production, AR, Game development) not 1982.
iPad had the strongest start in Apple history and was positioned to take over technology! Shipping 10 million in a quarter is a joke. For it's potential 10 million shouldn't be "growth" it's depressing. ......
Yeah I mostly agree...
I think iPad sales took off much faster than they anticipated and they didn’t fully understand why that was happening. I think that lack of understanding meant they didn’t know where to take the OS. There were, and really still are, a lot of important gaps in the software that prevent the iPad from reaching its full potential. For example, my wife borrowed my iPad Pro for a business trip and her conclusion was that she wants a Surface Pro so that she can do crazy things like have two documents open in Word at the same time. I really can’t blame her one bit — of course that should be possible! I personally am sticking with the iPad Pro because I like the fact that it’s thinner and lighter, plus I’m strongly attached to the Apple ecosystem (and I don’t like Windows). But I definitely want these goofy gaps in capability filled in.
Despite my criticisms, I will say this, though — I appreciate what Apple is trying to do here. I think in the long run it will be good that they resisted the pressure to just put MacOS on a tablet. They are being thoughtful and deliberate as they add functionality to iOS for the iPad. My hope is that in 5 years time, the iPad will be able to do just about all of the things that fall in the category of “stuff I can do on a MacBook that I wish I could do on an iPad,” but while still being less complex / easier to use than a Mac. In other words, I don’t think Apple has arrived at the sweet spot yet, but they’re on the right track.
There's so much Apple can do to differentiate iPad even more.
I believe something like the TrueDepth camera can allow game and movie studios to act out facial expressions to be transferred 1:1 to Digital without all those silly motion capture balls. With iPads bigger hardware, Apple can include a forward and back facing TrueDepth camera for studio work and include a new iPad edition of iMovie and Final Cut and maybe an App strictly for animation that utilizes all technologies including Pencil.
You seem to talk on behalf of "consumers" or as a "consumer" but the enhancements you suggest only interest niche markets. Apple is not into niche markets, there are developers and system integrators for that job. I prevent myself from going deeper on that but just let me state that those movies studios and alike will never give up on their huge resolution camera arsenals. Don't tell your iPad ideas to them, they may take that as an insult. If you're already in one of those markets, I'd just kindly remind you to not "push"...
Comments
I think iPad sales took off much faster than they anticipated and they didn’t fully understand why that was happening. I think that lack of understanding meant they didn’t know where to take the OS. There were, and really still are, a lot of important gaps in the software that prevent the iPad from reaching its full potential. For example, my wife borrowed my iPad Pro for a business trip and her conclusion was that she wants a Surface Pro so that she can do crazy things like have two documents open in Word at the same time. I really can’t blame her one bit — of course that should be possible! I personally am sticking with the iPad Pro because I like the fact that it’s thinner and lighter, plus I’m strongly attached to the Apple ecosystem (and I don’t like Windows). But I definitely want these goofy gaps in capability filled in.
Despite my criticisms, I will say this, though — I appreciate what Apple is trying to do here. I think in the long run it will be good that they resisted the pressure to just put MacOS on a tablet. They are being thoughtful and deliberate as they add functionality to iOS for the iPad. My hope is that in 5 years time, the iPad will be able to do just about all of the things that fall in the category of “stuff I can do on a MacBook that I wish I could do on an iPad,” but while still being less complex / easier to use than a Mac. In other words, I don’t think Apple has arrived at the sweet spot yet, but they’re on the right track.
Could Apple have improved the s/w more in the past? Certainly. And it would have perhaps made the decline less. But you can't take a 10.5" iPad from 2017 and say they should have made that in 2015. It doesn't work that way.
The "average" iPhone is turned over about every two years. The average iPad goes for over four. The technologies and speeds are about parallel, Apple hasn't paid less attention to the iPad -- it just is handled differently by the user than the iPhone is.
I just love IDC and Gartner. They always get Apple’s sales wrong. IDC predicted that Mac sales would be down 1% this quarter, though Windows sales would be down 4%, giving the Mac a tiny market share boost. Instead, Mac sales were up by 10%.
They gave it the smallest of upgrades .
I will miss it if they discontinue it.
As for iOS, I agree with Bruce, there are areas that need major rethinking to increase productivity and reduce frustration.
We know what happened. Your anger is misplaced.
its not Apple’s fault that the iPad 2 was so good that people refused to upgrade. Who expected that? Even the retina models weren’t enough to persuade people to upgrade. And people easily change their minds about things.
when the iPad came out, it was much cheaper than anyone thought it would be, and so drove a lot of sales. Other manufacturers had to scrap what they were doing because of that. And Android didn’t support tablets for years.
but before too long, $500 just seemed to be too much. So a total reversal. iPad market share began to go down, because people were holding on to their older models, and suddenly cheap Android models were good enough for the usual browsing, reading book, e-mail and messaging, and watching video. Who needed a tablet that cost, as a minimum, $500?
we need to be happy that Apple was able to see the problem and change course. The difficulty Apple was having, was in thinking that one tablet line, in the large size, was good for consumers and organizations. It wasn’t. The small tablets which contributed to a lot of the growth, started to die when the iPhone 6+ came out. The 9.7” likely didn’t lose as many sales, but stagnated.
the first shot Apple gave was the well received 9.7” Pro. But from what I read in the Pro computer journals, it was too small for that purpose for much beyond very basic needs. The introduction of both Pro models later, solved that problem, and allowed Apple to come out with an iPad that was priced in a more popular consumer price category, which they couldn’t do before.
we’re seeing the results of that understanding they now have. I stand by my above posts, but if Apple can maintain a 10% growth in sales, with a consequent hefty growth in the dollars from those sales as we saw this quarter, then Apple’s new bifurcation strategy will be working. If they can somehow get the 9.7 down to $299, they will hit a number that looks much better than even the $329 of today, which should boost sales a fair amount. Meanwhile, the two Pro models seem to be doing quite well.
at the same time, Samsung has their top model as a copy of Apple’s 9.7, with their stylus included, for $600. Sales have been poor. Performance isn’t great. If that the best they can do, then Apple’s in a good place.
There's so much Apple can do to differentiate iPad even more.
I believe something like the TrueDepth camera can allow game and movie studios to act out facial expressions to be transferred 1:1 to Digital without all those silly motion capture balls. With iPads bigger hardware, Apple can include a forward and back facing TrueDepth camera for studio work and include a new iPad edition of iMovie and Final Cut and maybe an App strictly for animation that utilizes all technologies including Pencil.
I agree there but we need to not make excuses for Apple. There should be absolutely no reason for someone to consider a knockoff whether that's prize, size etc. iPad needs to be like how iPod was, there were $20 knockoffs and nobody wanted them.
You bring up something I forgot to mention: Reading.
I waited years for Apple to bring a reading mode for iPad. Knowing Apple's engineering magic I knew it was possible. I waited too damn long and finally got a Kindle instead which lacks all the Apple magic but is easy on my eyes and a lot nicer to read on than my iPhone. I would have easily dropped a few more hundred dollars an an iPad that can display color e-ink or similar technology.
My last line said, "iPad Pro helped a little but the truth is Apple isn't doing enough and that means consumers don't have enough reason to own one."
Sadly I became one of those consumers.
i find reading on these to be especially easy on my eyes. A problem is the way people set the screen brightness. If it’s too high, then you can get fatigue. That’s why book reading apps allow for separate brightness settings (and colors) from the general device setting. Use it correctly, and the screen is dandy.
e-ink sucks. I’m not sorry about saying that, because it’s true. The only thing it is good for is a book reader. Not a magazine reader, and not even a newspaper reader, but just a book reader. No one in their right mind would make a general purpose tablet with e-ink, or anything similar.
and you’re wrong about consumer use. The new 9.7 iPad is perfect for consumer use. It’s more powerful than any Android tablet, with a good screen. The price is right, and few consumers need anything more. It does make an excellent book reader, particularly inside, when lights are dim, and in bed, with the lights off, which is something that for any e-ink reader, even with their bad front lights, can’t be said of. Spending the high prices of the better book readers is a waste of money if you want to do anything other than to just read books. And if that’s all you want to do, then spend money on that book reader instead, and forget about real tablets altogether.