“Amazon proved over the holidays that ‘good enough’ might be, well, good enough, for a large segment of tablet buyers,” Daniel B. Kline writes for The Motley Fool. “That’s bad news for Apple since it shrinks the market for the company’s higher-priced iPads, though the top-tier iPad Pro seems to be competing for a different user altogether.”
“In the fourth quarter of 2015, which includes the tablet-friendly holiday season, sales for all devices fell to 65.9 million units shipped — a 13.7% year-over-year drop, according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker,” Kline writes. “Total shipments for 2015 were 206.8 million, down -10.1% from 230.1 million in the prior year.”
“Overall, the market had few bright spots in the the year or the quarter, but two clear winners emerged — Amazon’s $50 Kindle Fire and hybrids powerful enough to serve as PC replacements. Shipments of those devices, led by the iPad Pro, reached an all-time high of 8.1 million devices, according to IDC,” Kline writes. “But, while Apple continued to lead the market, the company saw a -24.8% year-over-year decline in Q4, and you blame a lot of that on Amazon.”
“Going forward, tablets are going to become a lot like the computer market. Some people will pay more to have an Apple product, but a lot of that audience will go all-in and buy a top-tier iPad Pro. The rest of the market will balance features against price, opting for cheap, good enough devices even if their hearts really want iPads.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: There’s always a market for junk. Apple doesn’t want that type of customer. Amazon can have them. As with personal computers, smartphones, and smartwatches, Apple will simply do what they always do: Take the bulk of the tablet market’s profits and leave the dreck for the barrel-scrapers.
SEE ALSO:
When will Apple’s iPad sales finally bottom out? – February 4, 2016
And Amazon has a Dynabook that is just for reading e-books as an alternative to an iPad that does so much more?
One-trick ponies anyone?
not really… until the new version of GarageBand where the loops, etc. don’t work on my iPad 3, and certain software just seems sluggish compared to the Apple TV4 or iPhone 6, I’ve had a great user experience on the iPad, but it is time to upgrade… next iPad, esp. if it had 4GB of RAM, is going to be a big upgrade cycle.
For the money the fire is the best *low end* tablet out there bar none.
It’s a different market in my opinion. The people it really hurts are the low end Android tablet makers out of China. Why buy some off brand “Dragon Touch” tablet when you can get one backed by Amazon for the same price?
It’s not in the same league as an iPad. I have an iPad and I bought some Amazon Fire tablets as gifts for my cousins. Hard to beat a 5 pack for $250 and they work pretty damn good for what they are but at the end of the day they are not an iPad and I did not expect them to be one for the price.
Apple’s biggest roadblock to new iPad sales is Apple – they made such a solid product there isn’t much need to upgrade. I still know people buzzing along on iPad2s and they are happy.
I’m on an iPad4 and have no reason to upgrade.
Giving Amazon tablets as a gift? I’d rather get a lump of coal. Shame on you!
Maybe they are really annoying cousins and he doesn’t like them very much?
How to tell how someone feels about you:
You get an iPhone / iPad / Mac: HE LOVES YOU!
You don’t get anything: Who are you again???
You get an Android, Fire, WindowsPC: THAT’s how you recognize enemies!
They are all kids aged 7-10. When any of them use my iPad they all do the same thing anyway – they watch youtube, share youtube videos and they like to play some town building game.
The $50 fire tablets worked great for what they do with them. They can all log into their town game at the same time and trade resources around and youtube works just fine on the Fire.
I have zero regrets about my purchase at this point.
The kids are happy and my wallet isn’t empty. It was a win.
Same experience here, amazing tablet for the price. (Written on my ipad pro.)
Only in America is a company cursed because they build a long-lasting product that doesn’t need to replaced every few years as it doesn’t provide enough sales growth opportunity. Wall Street twists a consumer blessing into a curse. Wall Street is being run by incredibly greedy fools. Better to build a long-lasting product that offers years of selling content opportunities.
If a company offers a cheaper product, fine. Just don’t knock the company selling better products and always trying to compare the two by the same standards. I’m sure there’s a market that exists for both companies. No company should be required to own 100% market share.
My household picked up an iPad Pro and an Amazon Fire this Christmas. Both are great devices. The iPad Pro is very powerful. The Amazon Fire does most of the things you need; it has a bang for the buck that Apple can’t touch. And you can add inexpensive memory to it! — something you can’t do with my $1000 iPad Pro.
Apple is going to be seeing a lot of downward price pressure in the future. I suspect is a significant factor in why their stock is dropping.
I did the same as you and I agree with your comments 100%.
I think Amazon’s aim is not so much tablet as the device being a direct way for customers to access Amazon, its services and buy more stuff. Selling a good enough tablet at a good price is worth it to Amazon to further grow their customer base.
No. Apple’s failure to update the iPad Air was probably to blame.
Apple was smart to have the iPad Pro as the only new iPad. Now the next version will hopefully be announced soon and they’ll sell like gangbusters.
PRICE! YEAP
Many people, especially purchasing for a child, price is the deciding factor. Hey, it’s hard to tell rich people that, they think you are crazy if you spend your pocket, as oppose to spent your future. (debt)
So… Here we go again with CHEAP vs QUALITY and MARKET SHARE NUMBERS versus PROFIT SHARE NUMBERS.
This stuff is hilarious in its shallowness.
Congratulations Amazon for losing money with every $50 tablet sale. Well done. No doubt it will inflate the AMZN bubble even further. I have my earphones ready to dim the din of your bubble exploding.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
For $50, the Amazon Fire is a high quality device. It may lack some iPad capabilities and features but it is by no means cheap. What it does, it does very well.
AMZN is in the black. Perhaps they know what they’re doing.
George, how much profit has Amazon made in the last three years and how much revenue did it take to make that profit? Amazon has lost soooo much money and only bozo to blame for keeping it for himself.
Amazon, as usual, is BUYING market share and dazzling AMZN suckers. I’m staying out of that magical mayhem.
I think Amazon looks at each tablet sale as yet one more door for customers to buy directly from Amazon and consume their services. The day Apple starts selling other stuff like Amazon is when they are finally competing in the same ‘market’. I’d bet that each user of a Fire tablet spends a heck of a lot more via Amazon than an iPad owner through Apple.
Agreed. Locally, we’re beginning to be bombed with Amazon Echo ads (which thankfully are amusing). It’s a strategy! Own the customer.
I paid $25 for mine.
To me, it’s a mess around single task – keep it next to the toilet kind of pad. I have no plan to use it to buy from anywhere – or Amazon for that matter.
Again, to me it’s a $25 screen I can watch Netflix with.
It’s useless to me for anything else.
Amazon’s device sales only occur during the Holidays then they drop off a cliff. And I know Apple’s sales drop off as well as do most others, but Amazon’s sales will drop next to nothing for the remainder of the year. This happens every year.
Would you please back your claim with data?
Amazon’s earnings report any year.
How does that in any way indicate a drop in Fire Tablet sales?
Price is the big issue. I have a $50 Amazon tablet that I use when traveling. If it is lost, stolen or I leave it in a hotel room, at $50 it’s not a big deal.
It does email, a bit of browsing and that’s all I need when I travel. Of course, I also have my iPhone. 🙂
iPad is just a product that is usable a Long time and the things just don’t break. I gave my iPad 3 to a good friend of mine, and the thing is still really usable, a bit sluggish compared to my iPad Air2, but still very usable. The upgrade cycle is probably just like a pc, it takes years.
My 5-year old iPad 1 didn’t break but it is worthless.
It runs slower than molasses and it doesn’t support the latest apps or iOS.
I wouldn’t give it to my worst enemy.
You have amaz tablets, you would never have a iPad.
Personally I’ve come to the conclusion that I just don’t have the need for an iPad or similar device. I love my iMac, I love the size of the screen, I love the multi-window interface, I have it configured for how I want to use it and anything less is too much of a sacrifice. I love my iPhone, when out and about it is perfect, I use it for so many things, and when at home it’s great if I’m not at my Mac. The middle ground of what I can’t do on my phone, but that it’s not worth using my Mac for is small, too small to justify an extra device both in cost and portability is not worth it. Much as I loved my original iPad, I just didn’t use it enough to then justify replacing it (it still works when charged of course).
I agree that there is no replacement for the iMac – 27″ is the sort of real estate needed to do multiple tasks with multiple windows of each application open simultaneously. ie. 6 or 7 word documents for cut’n’paste or edit.
My gen 1 iPad is struggling now but still able to do e-mail and the low end web surfing that a cheap Kindle Tablet would do – so why bother wasting $50 on one.
A 32″ or 36″ iMac would be a nice upgrade, where is it Apple?
If Apple had a Mac Pro worth buying, you could get any size monitor that you want. There are some really nice and affordable big ass monitors out there.
Georgie porgy, you are not a good troll. Go practice on some other site.