“Apple, like any other company, has question marks. However, the question marks next to its name should not trigger the level of hysteria they often do. While Apple isn’t beyond reproach, it should be beyond the reach of lazy commentators and a financial and tech media starved for ratings and relevancy,” Rocco Pendola writes for Seeking Alpha. “For goodness sake, making something out of nothing vis-à-vis Apple hasn’t saved CNBC’s numbers from going in the toilet the last few years. Doing the same things that haven’t worked in the first half of the decade is highly unlikely to produce different results as 2015 nears. But they keep on keeping on with hits such as ‘The ugly number in Apple’s earnings.'”
“Ugly… Oh my!” Pendola writes. “But, hey, I’m an equal opportunity critic. In the diverse pool of thoughts and opinions Seeking Alpha produces daily, we get items such as ‘Apple’s Big iPad Problem.’ That article, like CNBC’s use of the word ‘ugly’ to describe something that’s anything but, skims the analytical surface drawing thin conclusions such as “are Apple’s products starting to steal business from one another?””
“The replacement cycle hasn’t been brought up enough to bring logic to lame cries of Apple’s iPad ‘problem.’ Whether we really need to or not, we have been conditioned by wireless companies and smartphone makers to replace our phones every two years or so,” Pendola writes. “We’re simply not going to replace a MacBook or iPad with quite as much frequency. They’re more expensive or, maybe more importantly, not subsidized. Obvious, but not obvious enough to stave off the crowd that can’t stop lamenting Apple’s perceived iPad problem.”
“Apple sold 39.3 million iPhones (that number continues to trend way higher year-over-year), 12.3 million iPads and 5.5 million Macs last quarter and you’re (not you!) going to tell me that somehow that middle number is ‘ugly’ and a ‘big problem,'” Pendola writes. “Years from now, we’ll look back on iPad concerns and it will all seem funny. But just as hysteria now, logic later is a bad way to run a company, it’s a bad way to invest, which, fittingly, makes AAPL one of the market’s most obvious and best long-term plays.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple sold 12.3 million iPads last quarter. 12.3 million units in 91 days. Right before the new iPads that everybody knew were coming, no less.
Apple has sold 237 million iPads in just over four years. 237 million.
What a nice “problem” to have.
Wait – “…lazy commentators” and Rocco in the same article? Mutually inclusive, I’d say!
Another really good headline by Rocco, and I only wish he’d sharpened his fingernails before taking the swipe at CNBC and the rest of those scowling clowns
And of course those who wail about those 12.3 million new iPads miss a very important point. iPad owners buy actual stuff to use on them. I only have one iPad (a 128GB Air wifi-only), but I’m constantly spending money on magazine subscriptions, music, apps etc. All of that funnels through Apple’s earnings too.
And even if every single one of those 12.3 million iPads went to existing customers they’ll suddenly find that they will be doing the same, just because that’s what people do when they have a new device.
The headline figure is the tip of an iceberg.
Ahhh.. The paniced competition and those who want apples demise will not stop to spread disinformation …. The desperate fools have nothing else left to do …..
You know when you see an article from Seeking Alpha (because they are all omega writers over there) by Rocky Roccoco PenDOHlala landing in front of your screen with the headline containing “Stop The Insanity” it creates a moment of blissful thought that you might read something like this in the article:
“A factual report has just revealed that over one half of Amerrycan tech jouranalists have been declared legally insane and will be put away in insane asylums, or Guantanamo Bay for treatment. As a result Rocco won’t be producing any more articles here…”
Of course that moment of blissful thought actually turns into a nightmare as one begins to pour through the article painfully realizing that Rocco’s on his own insane diatribe, in that very stereotypical style known as the “INCREDIBLE SUPERPOWER EGO”.
In the article:
“I” is used 19 times.
“me” used 4 times.
“my” is used 18 times.
That’s 41 personal references, compared to 33 references to Apple.
Ironically that moment of bliss is lost on Rocco for while he does state “While Apple isn’t beyond reproach, it should be beyond the reach of lazy commentators and a financial and tech media starved for ratings and relevancy.” he of course has no intention of leading the way and shutting up himself. Instead Rocco goes on about:
– His favorite musician Bruce Springsten. Obviously Rocco is really pissed off that U2 was chosen to be a free iTunes giveaway recently, heck they aren’t even American. Bring out the boss for several paragraphs.
– The Apple devices he owns and how he uses them. Gee Rocco, looking for ratings and relevancy here?
– Himself: “So I’m one person we could filter into an aggregate of Apple users just like me.”
– His favorite sport: Hockey and during this as an aside he mentions that he’s actually married and was allowed to breed. Gosh, does America have any kind of reproductive licensing? Probably not, which explains a lot.
Oh Tim Cook gets a couple of short mentions.
Stop the Insanity indeed, with Rocco on the job, the Insane just keep on going.
as a previous owner of iPad 2, iPad 3 (first retina), and current owner of iPad Air 1, i do think the iPad problem is not totally imaginary
yes it’s beating the crap out of the competition, but the question is why are sales stalling. the phablets are very much cannibalizing the 7-8″ range tablets, so apple should really add iPad Pro (more 12″ than 13″).
it’s just weird that the Mac platform of the PC paradigm is supposed to be cannibalized by the rise of iPad, and yet we’re seeing the reverse
But that’s based on the assumption that the iPad was destined to remain stagnant without any major transformations through the course of its lifetime. Yes there will be an iPad Pro but it’s not some new defensive maneuver to shield it from phablets, it’s an evolutionary step that would’ve happened regardless. I personally believe that the iPad Air 2 is the last stop for the iPad as we currently know it.
So it’s only a “problem” if one were to believe that the iPad would never change, the same way the original iPhone’s price was a “problem” to Steve Ballmer because he lacked the imagination to foresee it as temporary.
WTF is Uncle Walt’s problem?
I think there iPad is being hit from both ends. When the iPad was introduced it had advantages over existing computing devices (smartphones and laptops) but those are being eroded.
On one end, phablets (now including the 6+) are eating into the need for the iPads size advantage over early smartphones. On the other end is the Macbook Air. When the iPad was introduced it had a significant battery life advantage over laptops. Thanks to the Macbook Air that is no longer the case. There are still plenty of reasons to have and iPad but I think we are once again seeing one Apple product canabalising another. Add in that tablets seem to have turnover rate closer to Mac laptops rather than phones and the iPad “problem” is easily explained.
It is extremely unfortunate that the internet makes it possible for any idiot with an internet connection to pose as an “expert” and spout rubbish that other idiots believe and pass on to their friends. It’s a jungle out there.
Sinking Apple competition and haters grasping at straws.
finally. It’s irritating to keep reading about this huge failure iPad has become. This is a good counter point to that madness. Fact is, I’ve had great experiences with Apple since I started switching over to their products. My laptop was only replaced after one too many mishaps (mainly toddler related) and my iPad is easily my favorite of all my devices (although my first PSP was awesome). I haven’t bought a new iPad for a couple years, not because I wasn’t interested, because I didn’t need to. Their sales are usually also judged against the combination of other tablets running android. The dip in sales still equates a huge amount of units sold. Tech journalists smell blood in the water and they attack. The sky is falling is generally good click bait. Lures me in way too often.
Just wait until the unit growth in smartphones, in general, and iPhones, specifically, begins to flatten. It may take a while, but it will happen, just as it did with computers. Nothing grows without limit except (perhaps) the universe. At that point, mass hysteria will take hold!
As long as Apple maintains its exclusive iOS ecosystem and iOS-OS X linkage, then it will be in the driver’s seat for sales of premium devices. But competitors will keep taking shots at Apple and, eventually, one of them might get a clue.
Those haters want someone to believe so badly about how Apple’s iPad business is failing. It’s really amazing how they go on and on about this. You have to wonder what they’re trying to prove. It’s like they’re always trying to find and advertise some flaw in Apple’s business no matter how small.
It would be like in the car industry if a company was selling mostly SUVs and their sedan sales have slowed because consumers prefer SUVs. So what? I doubt any company sells every product in their inventory in equal numbers. That’s the nature of most companies that sell similar products in their lineup. However, as long as a company’s overall business remains strong everything should be fine. In Apple’s case, the increase of iPhone sales should easily offset loss of iPad sales. If consumers simply don’t have the need to constantly replace their iPads then that’s just how it is. That doesn’t mean Apple is doing anything wrong.
The iPad having a long replacement cycle should be seen as a good thing for consumers but yet this is seen as some red flag for Apple to build long-lasting products that don’t need to be quickly replaced. Slowing sales is one thing but constantly trying to claim Apple has a failing business in a particular market is going to far. There’s plenty of other companies whose businesses are failing to always be wasting time singling out Apple.
When U2 played arenas in the 80s they were often criticised for not selling them out. To which they would respond, “Oh well, at 50, 000 people enjoyed the show”.
Some people are never happy.