“I’m not convinced that the iPad will lose relevance with users over the long haul,” Alex Cho writes for Seeking Alpha.
“I make this case because the broader tablet market also has notched year-over-year declines (averaging a 3.2% decline for the product segment as a whole). What’s more likely the culprit is the lack of exciting, new technology and the need to move the tablet form factor up from 9-inch to 11-inch formats to 11-inch to 13-inch formats,” Cho writes. “This reinforces the rumors from various other publications that an iPad Mini 4 won’t be released, thus indicating ‘end of life’ of miniature tablets in favor of bigger tablets with bigger screens.”
“The tablet market is not saturated. The problem with the tablet market is the unusually long refresh times. In the case of Apple, we may be looking at a refresh time of 4 to 5 years,” Cho writes. “So next year, the support of new customers, paired with a huge population of older iPad owners, will drive growth in terms of units, and assuming the product cadence shifts to higher ASPs due to 13-inch tablet devices, gross margins also will improve. What this indicates is that multi-year refresh cycles, paired with the incremental growth of new iPad owners, are what’s driving the lumpy growth in certain years.”
Read more in the full article here.
No way apple will get rid of the ipad mini.!
It is a legitimat size for many.. And it completes the lineup.
Why leave it out and have potential customers go to the competition.
My vote it
Reintroduce the iphone in a 3.5 to 3.8 size plus 4.7, 5.5 …..
Ipads : 7.9 , 9.7, 12.xx
Total of 6 sizeses in iphones and ipads together.
And a 13 in hybrid tablet / macbook with adaptable os..running osx and ios
Time will tell… Let wait and see !;)
I’ve had 2 mini’s, currently have a 6 plus, and am looking forward to my next Mini. I absolutely hope they keep them coming.
The smaller size and lighter weight is exactly what I want in a tablet, despite having a 6+
Not to mention the fact that this year there was a significant new product available (ie., the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus), and lots of pent-up demand for smartphone upgrades. Plus the fact that for some, the 6 Plus essentially filled their iPad-related needs. So of course there’d be softness with only a mild iPad upgrade (Air to Air 2). Everyone can’t buy every Apple product every year. My iPhone 6 purchase held off my iPad upgrade (and the old iPad 2 still chugs along just fine). Next year? I suspect the iPhone upgrade will be mild, and the iPad may resurge (unless we’re all buying iCars, iTVs, iJetPacks and iBlenders instead).
Air to Air 2 is the opposite of a mild update. Air 2 is radically improved over Air. mini 3’s Touch ID is the only thing different from mini 2. There’s where your mild update resides. Want a 2GB A9 mini 4 very much. Have 6+ and it’s no substitute for Air 2 nor mini 2 or 3. All 3 devices have their place in a complete iOS lifestyle.
Clueless!