“Apple during the quarter gone by posted stellar earnings, with revenue that topped some analyst estimates by a whopping $2 billion. Naturally, extremely strong iPhone sales accounted for the bulk of Apple’s quarterly profit while iPad sales were much weaker than analysts were anticipating,” Yoni Heisler writes for TUAW. “All told, Apple sold 16.35 million iPads during the quarter, representing about a 16% decline in sales from the same quarter a year-ago.”
“So what gives? Are the iPad’s best days behind it? Did Apple’s famed tablet, as some have written, struggle with unrealistic expectations?” Heisler writes. “Maybe. Maybe not. Truth be told, there are not yet enough data points to make any sweeping generalizations about the iPad’s vitality.”
“The drop-off in iPad sales may have more to do with an unseasonably strong Q1 2013 than a particularly disappointing Q1 2014,” Heisler writes. “Put differently, the distribution of iPad sales across Q4 and Q1 may have simply returned to normalized levels this year. Which is to say that all of the hoopla surrounding a defeated iPad is misguided, to say the least.”
Read more in the full article here.