iPad Air takes top tablet spot in December, reversing Apple's tablet price erosion
Apple's revamped, fifth generation full-size iPad Air was the most popular iPad over the holidays, contributing to a end of the iPad's Average Sales Price erosion.
According to a report by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Apple's iPad product mix shifted dramatically toward newer models over the holidays.
iPad Air accounted for 41 percent of iPads sold, while the fourth generation "iPad with Retina Display" made up another 13 percent. The lowest price iPad 2 represented only 5 percent of sales. Together, the full sized iPads were 59 percent of Apple's tablet sales.
Apple's iPad mini models accounted for 41 percent of sales, with the base model representing 25 percent of all sales and the availability-constrained Retina version making up 16 percent of the mix.
December 2012, the firm noted that the base iPad 2 model represented 27 percent of all iPads sold, a figure that drove analysts to assume that customers were increasingly less interested in premium models at higher prices.
However, Tim Cook's 2013 iPad Christmas indicates an affinity for higher priced models, apparently driven by the elimination of the extra weigh and thickness previously associated with full sized iPads by the sleek, pencil thin new iPad Air model.
CIRP Partner and Co-Founder. Mike Levin noted that "Apple managed to shift significant sales to its higher-priced models," adding that, "for the past year, the legacy iPad 2 grabbed from one-quarter to one-third of iPad sales.
"Along with the trend toward sale of models with larger storage capacities, Apple should see higher iPad average selling prices, with iPad 2 at only 5% of total sales and iPad mini sales split between the original model and the new iPad mini with Retina display."
ASPs for Apple's iPads have dropped every quarter since 2011, but that trend appears to have reversed slightly during the final quarter of 2013. Apple is expected to release official sales numbers for iPads next week during its quarterly earnings conference scheduled for January 27.
According to a report by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Apple's iPad product mix shifted dramatically toward newer models over the holidays.
iPad Air accounted for 41 percent of iPads sold, while the fourth generation "iPad with Retina Display" made up another 13 percent. The lowest price iPad 2 represented only 5 percent of sales. Together, the full sized iPads were 59 percent of Apple's tablet sales.
Apple's iPad mini models accounted for 41 percent of sales, with the base model representing 25 percent of all sales and the availability-constrained Retina version making up 16 percent of the mix.
December 2012, the firm noted that the base iPad 2 model represented 27 percent of all iPads sold, a figure that drove analysts to assume that customers were increasingly less interested in premium models at higher prices.
However, Tim Cook's 2013 iPad Christmas indicates an affinity for higher priced models, apparently driven by the elimination of the extra weigh and thickness previously associated with full sized iPads by the sleek, pencil thin new iPad Air model.
CIRP Partner and Co-Founder. Mike Levin noted that "Apple managed to shift significant sales to its higher-priced models," adding that, "for the past year, the legacy iPad 2 grabbed from one-quarter to one-third of iPad sales.
"Along with the trend toward sale of models with larger storage capacities, Apple should see higher iPad average selling prices, with iPad 2 at only 5% of total sales and iPad mini sales split between the original model and the new iPad mini with Retina display."
ASPs for Apple's iPads have dropped every quarter since 2011, but that trend appears to have reversed slightly during the final quarter of 2013. Apple is expected to release official sales numbers for iPads next week during its quarterly earnings conference scheduled for January 27.
Comments
5% for the iPad 2. Sounds like we were right when we thought it was stupid to keep selling it. Keep it, maybe, as an education-only option (like Apple did with the white iMac long after the aluminum models were released).
Based on those 5% numbers I wouldn't be surprised if they silently dropped it from the line up before the next re-up, which includes moving ti to education-only.
“Someone” still bought the 17” MacBook Pro. That’s not really a valid belief.
I'd better sell mine quick then. I have a growing collection of unused iPads as we keep upgrading! I've got unused 2s now Retinas. Damn Apple for all these upgrades! Bad enough I have one of every iPhone ever made.
Great. Now would they fix the Safari crashing issue?
Companies LOVE the iPad 2 as a premium give-away product during promotions. They advertise it as a free iPad, giving the impression that it's worth $499 when in fact it's worth a lot less. Even then, it's a nice gift to win and Apple will let the person upgrade it to an iPad Air for full value if they don't unbox it.
I really came close to buying on of those a few years back. Recently I came across a used 17" and just for fun tried to heft it with one hand... OMG, what a boat anchor!! In looking back, I'll bet Apple was looking far enough ahead to see that the users were going to be demanding more portability which spelled "DOOM" for the 17" MBP and that's why they unloaded it when they did, even though there was a bit of whining about it at the time.
It looks like Apple called that one right.
It crashes?? Who would have known!
Just Safari for you?! I get 5-6 reboots a day on my Air. Almost brought it back to demand a refund.
Uh, that's not normal at all. You either have a serious software or hardware problem.
The current iPad mini with retina is much better value than iPad 2 with it running hardware behind the IPad mini w/o retina it should be priced somewhere inbetween $250-350 and they sold the 3rd gen in-between at $400-450 could have been possible.
I just wonder how the 4th gen is selling this well considering apple stopped production?
Yep! That's what Apple is good at. They price stuff in such a way that usually gets people to move to the more expensive item.
I remember back when the iPod Touch started at $229 for 8GB... but for only $299 you could get 32GB !!!
$70 more for 4 times the storage? Hell yeah!
The same sorta thing is happening with the iPad Mini as well. I know the starting price of $299 is attractive... but it's old hardware and a crappy screen. You'd be much better off finding an extra $100 for the Retina iPad Mini to get current hardware and a better screen.
But alas... some people simply look for the lowest price. They don't care about anything else. I know people who bought the iPhone 4S today because it was the "free" phone at Verizon. The sad thing is... the 4S already runs like crap and they're gonna have to keep it for 2 years!
They would have been much better off to find $100 and get the 5C. They'd have a semi-modern phone and LTE.
Oh well... sometimes Apple's pricing scheme doesn't move people up to the next model.
Possible NYT headline: Apple doomed? 60% iPad buyers say 'No' to the iPad Air.
Wait, don't give them ideas.