“For the past four years, you might have regarded the iPad as a gadget whose time had come and gone. After several years of amazing growth, sales didn’t just flatten, they fell. Every single quarter, sales were lower than the previous year’s quarter,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “But Apple persevered… even in the dark days, the iPad made plenty of money. No wonder Apple kept it going, and it does seem that the optimism is beginning to pay off.”
“I suspect things began to turn around for the iPad with the introduction of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro in 2015; it was clearly designed for productivity. The Apple Pencil accessory was clearly designed to ease the process of drawing on screen, but the combo, along with a 9.7-inch iPad Pro, failed to boost sales. Or maybe they kept sales from dropping further,” Steinberg writes. “So what did Apple do in 2017 to end the iPad sales drop? Was it all about promotion, compelling new models, or maybe — pricing?”
“Earlier this year, amid expectations that a 10.5-inch iPad Pro was in the works, Apple quietly released a refreshed model, based on the 9.7-inch iPad Air. It had an A9 processor and other enhancements, giving it pretty decent benchmarks. It also strayed far from the usual price structure, starting at $329 for the 32GB model. Suddenly, millions of users of older iPads had a relatively inexpensive way to upgrade to something with most of the latest technologies,” Steinberg writes. “If the replacement cycle is finally here, it does mean that, each year, more people will want to buy new iPads, reflecting the rapid sales run-up for the first three years. I suppose we’ll see.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Along with price (See: $329 iPad), iOS 11 will fuel the iPad upgrade cycle.
As our own SteveJack remarked seconds after Apple’s Craig Federighi unveiled iOS 11’s new features (namely, Multi-Touch Drag and Drop, the new Dock, and the Files app):
Finally, the promise of iPad is realized.
And, we wrote back in February 2016:
Here’s the thing: The iPad saturated its addressable market so quickly and the iPads are so well made and last so damn long that unless Apple provides a really compelling reason to upgrade, most people are just not upgrading yet. We handed off our original iPads to relatives a couple years ago and they’re still being used! Yes, they lack sensors to support many modern iPad games, but they are still in use. We also have immediate family members still using perfectly working iPad 2, iPad 3, and older iPad Air and mini models. The obsolescence cycle for iPad rivals that of the Mac. It’s very long.
The iPad is not a niche product. It had unprecedented uptake and the devices have such long, useful lives that the replacement cycle still hasn’t really kicked in. When it does — and when the macroeconomy improves to the point where users can consider adding the joys of iPad to their computing lives — then we’ll see iPad unit sales growth again. In the meantime, Apple should redouble their efforts at improving iPad – adding Apple Pencil, Smart Connector, and multi-user support (to mention just three things) that will make the iPad even more appealing to buyers.
Also, as we wrote so presciently back in January:
iPads are too expensive relative to the perceived competition and Apple has obviously done a piss-poor job of marketing the iPad family (read: clearly explaining to the hoi polloi why they want an iPad over an Amazon or other Android tablet).
Sticker price is the biggest reason why iPad sales struggle to return to growth (the next biggest reason is that iPads’ useful lives last so damn long, they’re not rapidly replaced).
We would have purchased iPads for family members this year if they had been updated as they should have been for the holiday season and if the prices were a bit more palatable. Yes, we know what an iPad offers. Yes, we know they’re worth the money Apple’s asking for today; even being last year’s models. But, Apple should really do the math and consider making certain hardware more affordable in exchange for the backend revenue and increased mindshare and market share that will deliver.
SEE ALSO:
It turns out the iPad was just too expensive after all – August 2, 2017
With iOS 11, Apple’s iPad truly could be your next personal computer – July 28, 2017
Apple’s iOS 11 turns the iPad Pro into the only device your family needs – June 28, 2017
Apple’s iPad Pro is now a true photographer’s tool – June 26, 2017
10.5-inch iPad Pro: Back on an Apple computing device, but not in the form I anticipated – June 23, 2017
Apple’s powerful, new 10.5-inch iPad Pro is a typing champ – June 22, 2017
Apple’s iPad Pro and iOS 11 will finally kill the MacBook Air – June 21, 2017
How Apple’s iPad Pro’s 120Hz ProMotion technology works – and why it’s awesome! – June 21, 2017
Tim Bajarin: Apple’s iOS 11 finally brings Steve Jobs’ vision for the iPad to life – June 20, 2017
Macworld reviews Apple’s 10.5-inch iPad Pro: ‘If any iPad replaces the MacBook, it’s this one’
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
CNBC review: In the market for a new tablet? You should buy Apple’s new 10.5-inch iPad Pro – June 17, 2017
TechCrunch reviews new 10.5-inch iPad Pro: ‘Apple pays off its future-of-computing promise’ – June 14, 2017
Apple’s game-changing 12.9- and 10.5-inch iPad Pros arrive in stores – June 13, 2017
Jim Dalrymple reviews Apple’s new 10.5-inch iPad Pro: Highly recommended – June 12, 2017
LAPTOP reviews Apple’s new 10.5-inch iPad Pro: Amazingly fast performance beats most Windows laptops – June 12, 2017
Ars Technica reviews Apple’s 10.5-inch iPad Pro: Much more ‘pro’ than what it replaces – June 12, 2017
These go to 11: Apple makes iOS more Mac-like and iPad’s promise is finally realized – June 9, 2017
They are still prob ahead of me. I have a 4th gen I bought new (and has been hermetically sealed in a Lifeproof case since purchase) and will considering selling it and purchasing last year’s iPad model.
Writing this on an iPad Pro (12.9) running the Public Beta of iOS 11:
It is a nice improvement but it is still not a replacement for a Macintosh. The pricing for the Pro model is still high by my value scale but your mileage may vary. When you add up the price of the big iPad Pro with an LTE radio than add the overpriced Pen and then buy the also overpriced 29 watt USB C charger (approved by Apple for use with the iPad Pro) and the overpriced USB C to Lightning Cable you are firmly into MacBook Pro territory.
I am puzzled why Apple persists in overcharging for the LTE models as the added costs are minimal. If they took the plunge and made LTE universal without price gouging they could further differentiate their product from the Android and throwaway Atom powered Windows units competing for the same Dollars.
Apple’s pricing is a big part of why Chromebooks have taken such a huge bite of the education market. The sales bump after the price cut has shown via the price discovery mechanism of the market that the price was too high. Economics 101 teaches that price is not a sales tag but rather what a customer will pay for it.
Apple doesn’t care about the education market any more than they care about servers. If it can’t be leashed to iCloud, Apple no longer gives a shit.
Be careful – you’re making far too much sense for this site. Be prepared to get your head ripped off.
iPads last a long time. I have a 1st gen that does email, notes, reminders, iTunes and is still supported by a great recipe app.
It’s dedicated to the kitchen now.
What OS are you running?
The combination of IOS 11 new features and the new 12.9 was enough to convince me to sell my iPad Air2. Yes, the worm has turned.
“Even a worm will turn is an expression used to convey the message that even the meekest or most docile of creatures will retaliate or seek revenge if pushed too far.” — Wikipedia
I’m not sure “the worm has turned” means what you think it means. A reversal of fortunes does not necessarily involve such turning of worms.
I upgraded (finally) because of features. Powerful processor. Apple Pencil. iOS 11. I mean, Apple had to give us a reason to upgrade. And it finally did.
Don’t get your knickers in a twist. Sure they will see a. bump in sales due to a $329 iPad (ASP dropping shows that’s what caused the sales uptick), but that’s not a strategic direction.
My prediction? They will continue to have an uptick in sales once iOS 11 comes out, because iOS 11 will not support iPad 2, 3, and 4, forcing those users to upgrade their device (Apple is famous for that hustle). People will continue to shout that the iPad has broken thru. Then the sales will slow down again in about a year or so, proving it has not tapped new markets. Believe me Tim Cook knows this, which is why they’re frantically trying to convince enterprise to adopt this as a desktop. Won’t happen as-is, with Apple insisting everyone must live in their walled garden, Mobile os world.
So iPad will likely begin to dry up after 2 years, unless they (and I promise all of you purists they will do this) release the “ultimate vision iPad” device that is essentially the touch MacBook. Despite all their pontificating that a tablet is a tablet and a laptop a laptop, they’ve known for a while that a full-OS touch device is the future. They just won’t admit it directly because people would know Jobs was wrong and they would suffer from a major black eye. So they’ll admit it slowly, which is what they’re doing now.