Supply chain sees tablet market expansion, with Apple's iPad holding fast

Posted:
in iPad edited August 2016
Apple is expected see consistent sales of its high-end offerings in the third calendar quarter of 2016, while other companies like Samsung and Amazon will be greatly impacted by the flood of "white box" generic tablets from Chinese manufacturers.




The research report published by supply chain monitor DigiTimes claims that the overall global tablet market shipment volume will bounce back 16.3 percent in the third quarter of 2016 versus the second quarter to hit almost 47 million units. However, overall volume will still be down over 10 percent compared to the year-ago quarter.

"White box" tablets from Chinese manufacturers will see significant gains, with all the vendors combined seeing an increase to 18.5 million units shipped to retailers, an increase from 13.8 million shipped in the second quarter of 2016.

Apple is said to only see a slight drop, falling to 9.5 million units on the strength of the iPad Pro 9.7-inch.

Samsung is expected to be struck heavily by the "white box" tablets flooding the market, seeing impingements on its entry-level and mid-range market hold.

The overall increase in the tablet market is attributed to seasonal supply chain loading for the holiday season, as well as emerging market economic improvements. Any iPad refresh in an expected September event for the "iPhone 7" wouldn't be significantly felt until the fourth quarter of 2016.

Apple reported iPad sales in the third fiscal quarter of 2016 of about 10 million units. As a result, Apple realized a 9 percent increase in revenue from the segment, but a 7 percent drop in total sales, reflecting the higher average selling price of the iPad Pro lineup.

Apple's third quarter was the best quarter for the iPad in the last two and a half years. Apple noted in its earnings report that among US consumers planning to purchase a tablet in the next 6 months, 63 percent plan to buy an iPad, with the iPad Pro the top choice for planned purchases.

While Digitimes has a spotty track record of picking out Apple product specifics, it has a good handle on the overall supply chain useful for evaluating trends and larger industry factors, such as this tablet sales report.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8

    It would be interesting to know how much iPad volume is due to IBM selling into enterprise/institutions/government with its MobileFirst offerings.

    rob53slprescottDeelroncalijony0
  • Reply 2 of 8
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member

    It would be interesting to know how much iPad volume is due to IBM selling into enterprise/institutions/government with its MobileFirst offerings.

    I'm interested as well. I could care less about the flooding of the disposable tablet market, they don't support any company other than computer recycling businesses. The apps used on the white box tablets aren't going to help app developers either. Apps developed for and used by "enterprise/institutions/government" installations are what make programmers money, bringing the widespread use of real tablets with real applications that benefit people. 
    topper24hoursjony0
  • Reply 3 of 8
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    In short iPad is d00med because it outsells Mac 2:1
    edited August 2016
  • Reply 4 of 8
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member

    It would be interesting to know how much iPad volume is due to IBM selling into enterprise/institutions/government with its MobileFirst offerings.

    Personally I’m seeing iPads all over the place when it comes to business use. From Point of Sale terminals to representatives carrying them around (Terminix Pest Control guy, car salesman, etc.) My son-in-law’s company is 100% iPad for field techs. I hear all the hype about the Surface but frankly I’ve only seen a few out there so far.
    baconstangnolamacguycalialbegarcjony0
  • Reply 5 of 8

    Yeah, the enterprise/institutions/government potential is fantastic:

          • IBM sells MobileFirst apps into these targets
          • IBM and/or Apple sells iPads, iPhones, AppleWatches, AppleTVs into these targets
          • The MobileFirst apps are written in open-source Swift
          • IBM has written an open-source Swift web server named Kitura (currently available for OS X, macOS and Linux)
          • The MobileFirst apps use IBM cloud services such as Watson for deep analytics, etc.
          • The targets IT uses open-source Swift to write internal desktop apps to interface their organizations to the MobileFirst apps
          • The targets buy Macs to write their open-source Swift apps for their desktops, mobiles andiDevices
          • The targets use, and write open-source Swift apps that use) Apple iCloud services for their iDevices  
          • The targets IT writes their backend server apps in open-source Swift

    Just think what this means to, say, a health care provider, university, large corporation...

    Take advantage of the best available devices, cloud services, apps and write and maintain your own frontend/backend/device apps in a fast, safe powerful language -- 
    open-source Swift!





    edited August 2016 jdgazjony0
  • Reply 6 of 8
    tmaytmay Posts: 6,309member

    Yeah, the enterprise/institutions/government potential is fantastic:

          • IBM sells MobileFirst apps into these targets
          • IBM and/or Apple sells iPads, iPhones, AppleWatches, AppleTVs into these targets
          • The MobileFirst apps are written in open-source Swift
          • IBM has written an open-source Swift web server named Kitura (currently available for OS X, macOS and Linux)
          • The MobileFirst apps use IBM cloud services such as Watson for deep analytics, etc.
          • The targets IT uses open-source Swift to write internal desktop apps to interface their organizations to the MobileFirst apps
          • The targets buy Macs to write their open-source Swift apps for their desktops, mobiles andiDevices
          • The targets use, and write open-source Swift apps that use) Apple iCloud services for their iDevices  
          • The targets IT writes their backend server apps in open-source Swift

    Just think what this means to, say, a health care provider, university, large corporation...

    Take advantage of the best available devices, cloud services, apps and write and maintain your own frontend/backend/device apps in a fast, safe powerful language -- open-source Swift!





    How about some ARM supercomputing on that list, not yet with some open-source Swift support, but what a nice piece of hardware this would be for Apple HQ.


    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/23/fujitsu_arm_post_k/
    cali
  • Reply 7 of 8
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,255member

    Yeah, the enterprise/institutions/government potential is fantastic:

          • IBM sells MobileFirst apps into these targets
          • IBM and/or Apple sells iPads, iPhones, AppleWatches, AppleTVs into these targets
          • The MobileFirst apps are written in open-source Swift
          • IBM has written an open-source Swift web server named Kitura (currently available for OS X, macOS and Linux)
          • The MobileFirst apps use IBM cloud services such as Watson for deep analytics, etc.
          • The targets IT uses open-source Swift to write internal desktop apps to interface their organizations to the MobileFirst apps
          • The targets buy Macs to write their open-source Swift apps for their desktops, mobiles andiDevices
          • The targets use, and write open-source Swift apps that use) Apple iCloud services for their iDevices  
          • The targets IT writes their backend server apps in open-source Swift

    Just think what this means to, say, a health care provider, university, large corporation...

    Take advantage of the best available devices, cloud services, apps and write and maintain your own frontend/backend/device apps in a fast, safe powerful language -- open-source Swift!


    Apple does seem to be gaining its footing with the iPad. I'm becoming more optimistic that the iPad will grow again, and I'm glad Cook has been patient. 

    I think perhaps the iPad grew so fast initially that Apple was caught flat footed. They just weren't ready to provide all the tools and partnerships necessary for the product to reach its potential. Now, though, it's looking like Apple is making the needed investments in iPad and there's hope that it will work out. 

    One non-small gripe I have, though, is that some of the marketing for the iPad Pro is reminiscent of the OS/2 marketing message "a better Windows than Windows". Apple is coming perilously close to marketing the iPad Pro as "a better laptop than a laptop." It's not a laptop, and the only sense in which it's a replacement for a laptop is in contexts where a laptop really isn't the right device. 

    Devices are defined by their optimal UI, and the optimal UI for the iPad is touch, not a stupid floppy keyboard. It's fine to have the stupid floppy keyboard -- some people in some situations need it and it's fine to sell it to them. But the best reasons to buy an iPad involve uses where touch interface is the best interface, and that's what the marketing should focus on. 

    albegarcbadmonk
  • Reply 8 of 8
    tmay said:How about some ARM supercomputing on that list, not yet with some open-source Swift support, but what a nice piece of hardware this would be for Apple HQ.

    Ha!  Back in the 1980s Apple had a Cray supercomputer that they used to design the Macs (among other things)...  And, as the story goes, Seymour Cray had used an Apple desktop (Mac?) to design the Crays.

    Seriously, I was unaware of the ARM supercomputer effort in your link... Amazing!

    Since Linux already runs on ARM and Swift already runs on Linux -- it shouldn't be much effort to support open-source Swift on the ARM supercomputer. It might make sense -- I read somewhere that Apple considers Swift to be a System programming language: everything from writing low-level hardware drivers; scripting; apps; servers; OSes...  Maybe even supercomputer OSes.

    And, yes SWORP (SWift On Raspberry Pi).

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