“Sales of the iPad took an unexpected tumble last quarter (Q3 13), with shipments falling by 5.4 million compared to the year-ago quarter,” Adrian Kingsley-Hughes reports for ZDNet. “This has led some to believe that the market for Apple’s slate has become saturated in a little over three years.”
“Christopher Mims and Richie King of Quartz throw at lot of pretty charts and numbers at readers in an attempt to convince them that the iPad market is saturated,” Kingsley-Hughes reports. “But the charts and infographics aren’t convincing me for a number of reasons.”
Kingsley-Hughes reports, “Apple has sold almost 400 million iPhones, and that market is still going strong, so it is a little hard to imagine that after three years and 155 million sold that the iPad is juggernaut has hit the buffers.”
Read more in the full article here.
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Morons. And I’ve also seen tons of Google fanbois spewing this nonsense too. All you have to do is look at the product cycle. In 2012, a new iPad model was released in mid March, and in 2013 one was not. There’s your difference and anyone without an anti-Apple agenda can clearly see it.
Apple flipped the iPad 4 too quickly on the heels of the iPad 3 and distorted the sales/upgrade renewal cycle. I have an iPad 3 and chose not to buy an iPad 4 when it came out. I might sell my iPad 3 and get an iPad 5 if the upgrades are significant, ie. processor speed to A7 chip, memory bump to 2GB.
I wouldn’t worry about it. The sales blip is temporary at best. People are still buying iPads, in fact they account for 85% of tablet specific web traffic, so collectively sales of iPads are not in decline.
Apple’s naming convention for iPads is broken. Don’t get people confused by saying iPad (generation 3). That is just pure Cook stupidity if you ask me.
According to my math, 17 million last year minus 14,600,000 this year is only 2.4 million difference, not 5.4 million as it says in the article.
And didn’t Apple sell something like 3 million of the new Retina iPads in their debut weekend last year? That right there accounts for the shortfall.
Have 3 skipped 4 waiting on 5
Me, too.
1
yup.
have iPad 1 – going nowhere until maps are sorted !!
Wake up, they are.
I love apple.
But they are not fully sorted yet.
But they are 85% sorted.
Apple did in 1 year what gaggle took 10 years to to do.
1 more year and apple will have the best maps in the world
Uh huh.
They already are.
Why are these so called analysts to freaking out to lunch.
Simplest explanation. There was no new ipad released in march april like last year. Just a simple prodoct cycle issue. .. Nothing else
Unreal how bs easly gets published on internet !
Exactly (and simply) correct. iPad refresh will be in the Fall going forward, which really started last year.
This opens up the March/April timeframe for a completely NEW product, that can be highlighted by Apple without the distraction of new models of existing products. We’ll just have to “watch” for it.
Let’s just put it this way:
There is not a company in the world that wouldn’t like to have 38% margins and $7+ Billion in profits during their slowest quarter. Wall Street noise is a whole different business where they don’t give a rat’s ass about a company or the things they make. Their business is moving trades. Ignore the noise. Apple is making great products and taking relatively great care of their customers.
Not to mention many people will be holding off on purchases until back to school starts, which is just now happening.
ZDNet sucks.
Peter O also provides numbers during the call explaining how in the yr ago qtr they increased channel inventory by, I think it was, 1.7 million units and this qtr reduced channel inventory by 750,000 units. Accounting for the channel inventory change they only saw a -3% change in sales. When you realize that no new model was released the numbers look ok considering the overall market. But it is a mild disappointment not to see some kind of astounding growth number like up 26, 50, or even 98% YOY
I bought the original iPad skipped iPad waiting for a Retina Screen and I will skip however many are required until the cellular radio is LTE advanced.
I was tempted by the iPad mini but in the end didn’t want to give up my retina display and the larger physical size of the tablet UI controls.
The iPad 3 simply does everything I need it to. If Apple wants me to buy more iPads I need a Retina Mini and two 13″ iPads connected by a hinge with 128 GB SSD or more.
That way I have a portable one and one that can eventually replace what will be my aging Mid 2009 13″ MacBook Pro with its HUGE two handed horizontal interaction surface (iPad masquerading as a 13″ magic trackpad/virtual keyboard)
A drop in sales is much better than a $900m writedown. Other than Apple, which maker is making money on tablets, HP, Dell, MSFT, RIM, Nexus, anyone? Eventually, Apple will have 100% tablet market.
Great iPhone sales.
Lower iPad and Mac sales are concerning. As any accountant will tell you, inventory adjustments mean unexpected lower sales demand.
Apple under Tim Cook has gotten the Mac a little bit overpriced. iMac’s and Macbook Pro’s would sell far better with a $250 lower price tag.
I have seen numerous potential customers leave that intended to purchase because of price alone.
This is important, because the initial purchase brings a new customer to the Apple echosystem – AppStore, iTunes, iBooks etc.
Potential customers are walking away and deciding to keep their old PCs. They can’t stand Windows 8, but they won’t pay the current prices for Macs. Therefore, they do nothing or they replace the hard drive on their old dinosaur.
Most customers don’t appear to be replacing their old dinosaurs with iPads. Instead they are keeping the old dinosaur and purchasing an iPad.
If Mac were about $250 less Apple would be selling twice as many Macs. Customers would be replacing the old dinosaur and moving away from Microsoft. As it stands now, Apple is leaving the door open for Microsoft to fix their issues.
I’m tempted by the 128GB iPad4. But the iPad2 still works perfectly. Damn you, Apple! Haven’t you heard of planned obsolescence?
The problem is the media, the analysts, and the people that listen to them. They are short-sighted and reactionary. Apple knows what it is doing and how to see and plan in its own future.