“I had previously explained the concept of tablet market tiers and the pattern of upmarket competition among Android vendors as they continue to fight for reasonable hardware margins,” Sameer Singh writes for Tech-Thoughts.
“Recent tablet install base data from ABI research seems to support this hypothesis and describes the same pattern we saw in the smartphone market,” Singh writes. “This also helps explains why Apple needs an iPad Pro.”
“It seems that iPad sales are being driven by repeat buyers, while Android tablet sales are being driven by first time buyers,” Singh writes. “Now, what would happen when branded Android tablet vendors make a concerted upmarket push? This is inevitable because branded vendors are facing increasing margin pressures from regional brands and white box competitors in mid-market tiers. Increasing competition in the limited high-end market could cause iPad shipments to flat-line or even decline over the next few years. In response, Apple is likely to aggressively target the only market tier remaining above — the enterprise.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Let’s wait to see what happened with Christmas tablet sales with enticing new iPads (iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display) available this year.
Related article:
Newsflash: Apple sells premium products at premium prices to premium customers – October 23, 2012
Just a bigger screen? Should NOT be called “Pro”.
iPad /iOS needs a crapload of improvement to be considered “pro”. Yes much more than a bigger screen. I just encountered another frustrating issue in iOS 7 on my iPad air. I tried the camera connection kit for the 1st time on my new iPad air with iOS 7. With every very goddamn version of iOS , Apple puts on the retard hat and changes the way one selects many photos for import. I am not kidding, in iOS 4, 5, 6 the method to select many photos changed. This time they just don’t allow it it all. I was so frustrated about the feature that no longer works I wanted to throw it at the wall. This is just one example of Apple being incompetent. It seems for everything they do right they do something equally retarded. This is completely ignorant amateurish poor application design and I am pissed about it because it really wastes a lot of time for the user.
That said, I still want a larger iPad and believe it’s just a matter of time.
Let’s celebrate.
The Pro version will let us move 3 files between apps instead of 1 file.
Not sure I can keep up with all the innovation!
That’s okay, being slow and dimwitted is a natural state for trolls who come here.
This guy has it upside-down and backwards. The so-called competition is in the mid-tier BECAUSE Apple owns the top-tier of the market. They were simply unable to compete with the master.
Here, here!
It’s hear, hear.
their there!
Heir hair!
Apple “needs” to listen to Singh like it needs a hole in the head.
They’ve been working on a large iPad since day one. They have hundreds of prototypes stashed away in their lab. This is pretty much certain. They will release it when it is powerful enough and cost effective enough – when it makes sense. They never, ever make something because the “competition” is doing it. We all know that here, I think we should get Singh’s paycheck this month.
Anyone who wants to know why a large iPad would make sense only has to look at Logic. I’m positive Apple is using it as a testbed – the coupling of the iPad app and the desktop app is close to flawless now. I’m guessing FCP will get the same treatment (if it hasn’t already – I haven’t tried ProCutX – but I’d guess Apple will come out with their own version). I would love to have a larger iPad to control apps. If they’d only add in pressure sensitive pen support (my wish list), the thing would be damn near perfect.
Pretty sure iPad pro would be a great companion to the new mac pro, and sport the same 4k screen res.
Hope with 64bit. We can have more than one document on the screen in Pages and Numbers. One open document at a time is Extremely Limiting
“It seems that iPad sales are being driven by repeat buyers, while Android tablet sales are being driven by first time buyers,” Singh writes.
And then the Android tablet goes in the bottom drawer when they go out and buy a decent tablet from Apple
Android sales are being drive by first time buyers because no Android maker has sold very many tablets — ever.
No person buys a second Android tablet after buying a first.
Anyone having trouble with their iPad mini Retina keeping a wifi signal? I can have my 5s with the AirPort Utility on next to the mini Retina set the same. The mini can lose the signal 4 to 5 times per hour where the 5s does not. I replaced the Comcast modem with a new one but that didn’t help. I’ve got a AirPort Extreme base and two Express’s to extent the range. Anything similar out there?
probably user error
Ah, no. Honest question.
People who work on tablets, like me, use iPads. The current size is fine. Size isn’t equal to power.
I’m with MDN on this… let’s wait and see what Apple’s Q4 results look like. With the $299 non-Retina iPad Mini, I see Apple’s sales exploding, even in the low-to-mid-end range. With retailers like Wal-Mart and Target offering gift cards with purchase during Black Friday, I see Apple destroying sales of even the garbage low-end tablets.
I agree. I was one of those holiday buyers. I bought one iPad mini for each of my two kids from Best Buy. We now have five iPads in a four-person household. Five iPads, two iPhones, and two MacBooks.
Apple already has the high end with the Air, and consumers have shown to like the mini better. These are ‘hand held” devices, and more than any type of devices, ergonomics and convenience trump bigger every time. There will be no 13″ iPad nor is there pent up demand for such a thing.
I think you’re wrong about this. I’m not so sure the Air would be the usersThere are many different uses for an iPad, and I think enough folks at the high end to make it profitable. It would almost certainly eat into laptop sales, but that’s happening already anyway… I think this is the future and Apple knows it and will stay ahead of it.
Yes it will come. It is inevitable. Like notebooks there will be many sizes. Why not ? I’ve been wanting larger iPad for years and I read many people posting the same desire here and other forums. I use my iPad often on a stand on dining room table, and want it to be bigger!
A 13″ iPad running the Air Display app would be awesome as a second monitor for a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro.
$10 Cyntiq tablet FTW
High viewability for a larger iPad used in one-on-one management and sales presentations is a market that I think will be large. It will also suit people with restricted vision.
Smart move.
I don’t quite understand the need or market for a 13″ iPad, pro or otherwise…however, I pooh-pooh’ed the original click-wheel iPod: until I got one in my hands.
“Now, what would happen”, “This is inevitable because”, “Apple is likely to”.
He just pulled it all out of his donkey. 😎
It seems like he is stating supposition like it is fact.
I don’t believe that most first time buyers buy a ‘roid tablet and most purchasing an iPad are replacing a tablet.
In just my experience (admittedly limited) for the majority of people who own an iPad, it was their first tablet.
I’v noticed a trend, todays tech writers seems to be using the same “formula”: state some dubious suppositions as if they were a given fact. Then build an even more outrageous hypothesis proved by those “facts”.
“pressures from regional brands and white box competitors in mid-market tiers”.
And exactly how did the iPod business do in light of those pressures?
I wonder if these geniuses who try to advise Apple on sales and marketing, ever made a dime running a company or even selling a product. If they could run a company they would do it instead of working for writers wages. Apple has access to high powered market research,. They’d do not need advice from this armature.
With Apple, you get what you pay for — people are willing to pay a premium for a product that has value. In the long run, Apple products are cheaper than the cheap lower-margin products offered by Apple competitors. Apple will only offer an iPad 13″ model if it enhances the user experience, not for any other reason.
I’ve not read it, but I would guess that if you boil it down, the answer is, at least in part, because the writer thinks they want one.
My 11″ MB Air is as easy to carry around in the ‘enterprise’ is as a 13″ currently non-existent tablet would be. Plus it has OSX Mavericks and boots faster than the fastest iPad. So again, why would I need a 13″ iPad Mr. Singh?
Every time I look at the display on my 13″ MacBook Pro I think it wold be a great size for an iPad. It’s a natural and I believe it will be released when Apple believes it is ready.
The whole point of a tablet is to be nice and portable, something you can hold in your hand.
You can’t hold a 13″ tablet in one hand or even comfortably in two. Such a market will be extremely limited, and I doubt we’ll see a 13″ iPad.
I think the opposite. Many people what to see things at closer to 100% scale.
If a binder with a hundred sheets of 8.5″x11″ paper is too big for a person to comfortably hold in one’s hand, then it’s quite a generation of weaklings we have bred.
Why not make a Macbook Pro or Air or something, with a detachable screen (magnetic?). Best of both worlds.
What I’m certain to finally see – 4K Thunderbolt Display, upgraded new Apple TV, Mac Mini refresh, iWatch, iPod price cut (and maybe a redesign). But I’m most excited for the iPad Pro and I hope that we won’t have to wait too much longer for that tablet (we knew almost everything about iPhone/iPad for a long time before Apple decided to release them).
Ahhh, an iPad that fixes grievances found in the original model i.e. Micro SD card slot. That’s still a stupid thing and Apple has done it only because they want to better control their end product, charge a premium for flash memory, and it’s easier for them to manage a system that doesn’t have to be compatible with external ‘accessories’. It’s not complicated, just like those slots aren’t complicated everywhere else (MacBook Air included), by the way BluRay is no more complicated than DVD’s are. Apple prides itself on simplicity by complicating things that are a standard and making devices NOT user friendly.
I’m preparing myself for the worst case scenario so I won’t be hugely disappointed. The initially released model in 2014 won’t be 4K, it probably won’t even have a better screen than Air has now, also 256GB storage will debut in 2015 with 2nd gen. iOS 8 or OSXi probably still won’t be as versatile as Windows 8.1 is, so let’s forget about many functions we’re used to on notebooks. I may be wrong but connecting this tablet device won’t improve much, that means no build-in hdmi/thunderbolt option.