The Surface line is gaining momentum, but still no where near the iPad in terms of sales. I do agree though that a "tablet" won't be a thing in five years. It will just be another form factor of a notebook or phone.
Tablets were always a luxury, they never developed a killer usage case or app, they're just nicer to use on the couch than your phone or laptop... That's enough of a thing to carry them forward, just not for them to explode into a must have device.
Tablets don't need to be replaced as often as phones - they take far less abuse. We have three iPads at the house - iPad3, iPad4, and an iPad Air, and the old iPad 3 plenty fast enough for anything you can do on an iPad. I'm sure when iPad sales start to really fall, Apple will come up with a new model to spur interest - maybe a larger screen, or OSX integration. The screen size of the Surface Pro 3 is really nice, but I'm not sure if the Microsoft tablet will cut into iPad sales, or cut into Windows laptop sales.
I also think the Surface will become more popluar as MS rolls out Win10. If they could simply get Win7 running smoothly on it, I reckon it would sell. But I also think the Surface is a laptop. To me, a tablet is something that can be operated with fingers, not something that simply works better with keyboards and a mice.
I have a Surface 2, and I use it 99% of the time with my fingers. I don't even have a type or touch cover. Web browsing works great with IE, and email, and messaging, and games... Really, it can be used perfectly as a tablet with no other accesory. The difference with iPad is that, if YOU want or need, with Surface you can have MORE, add keyboard and mouse, and increase productivity.
There are places where tablets make sense, but not always usually with consumers. Cockpits as electronic flight bags (EFB), on warehouse floors, ...
So I don't see them going away entirely, but they do seem to be struggling in the consumer space. I expect that transformable tablet/laptops have a place in the consumer space. Some want more power or just a bigger screen than a phablet.
Either way it will be interesting to see where mobile devices go over the next few years.
Your weirdly pessimistic view of tablets is common on tech sites, especially the one that seem to have an excessive amount of posters that think Apple shouldn't exist and that if you don't build your own PC you're a tool, but your understanding of the tablet market is incorrect.
Despite YoY unit sales loses (for about 2 years now?) the iPad has still a few dozen million units ahead of the iPhone for the same duration on the market since launch. Let's remember that Apple has some over 130 MM iPhone in the last 6 months alone. That should tell you just how impressive the iPad's meteoric rise has been.
If you also consider that most iPad users tend to use them for years and then hand them down to others you would see that the iPad has a very different lifecycle than that of the "PC" and smartphone. Believe me when I tell you that it's not going to vanish.
Excellent comment. My fourth generation retina display iPad is 2.5 years old and works just as well as when it was new.
In a similar vein, my iPod classic from 2007 still works like a charm despite nearly constant use these last 8 years.
Meanwhile, my iPhone 4 feels slow and ancient and is due for an upgrade very soon.
There is no way the iPad can keep up with the iPhone's sales pace now that market saturation has been reached. Sales will likely continue to decline to since the product life cycle is much longer.
I think you and the other poster touched on the reason Tablets markets have become saturated, because they aren't obsoleted easily and in general, there's very little content/capability that a tablet from a few years ago can't do that a brand new one today can. Reality of it is, tablets aren't good enough for productivity/enterprise and there isn't enough demanding content to force people to upgrade. Most of the main cards have been played (resolution, battery life, thin-ness).
Phone market is different though, Apple just played the size card, their next target will be resolution. Now the goals for everyone will be improving battery life as soon the phone market will reach market saturation in terms of absolute performance. There's no doubt we're going to start seeing people hold onto their phones longer as there are going to be fewer big reasons to force people to upgrade.
Anyways, biggest reason iPads are stagnating is because they have limited functionality in the enterprise. That's the market that can keep turning over Apple hardware, but there's just too many limitations on iPad/iOS compared to something like the Surface Pro. Only chance Apple has is to do something similar with an iPad Pro running Mac OS X at the minimum. While Mac OS also sucks for enterprise integration, it is still far better than iOS.
According to Tim Cook, on today's conference call, 40% to 70% of iPad sales are going to new users, depending on country. Per his statements, this does not reflect a saturated iPad market.
Either he's blowing smoking up our asses or you and the poster above have data he doesn't.
40-70% of an ever decreasing total sales number with a focus in new markets. Existing markets are saturated so he's trying to sell them to different markets and clearly, not doing that well at it. It's not like the smartphone market where there's a clearly defined 2 yr. refresh cycle and high chance of repeat buyers.
So yeah, if they sold 80 million iPads in NA in the last 5 years and no one there is in a rush to buy a new one, the 20 million he sells in India this year will technically be going to "New Users", but that doesn't change the fact existing tablet markets are saturated and they are being forced to seek out new markets.
Uhm, I know the total iPad sales are "not impressive" (as much as selling 10+ million units can be interpreted as "not impressive"), but 40-70% to new users is actually quite good—and it _does_ mean the market in general is not yet saturated. Parts of the market are, yes, but worldwide they are still selling to new customers, who in turn might be upgrading their devices in 3-4 years or more.
Everyone I know with an iPad is in no hurry to get a new one, though, including myself with the mini 2 and a bunch of people I know who are still quite happy with their iPad 2 (which is even pre-retina!). And the fact that people use their phones way more, like someone already mentioned, also puts less pressure on the tablets being updated.
I guess in a way Apple succeeded in turning the iPad into a "real appliance"; upgrading them regularly just isn’t on people’s radar. That doesn’t mean noone wants an iPad anymore, though.
Agree. With 6 Plus I no longer felt any necessity in upgrading the original Mini to a 2 or 3. As Apple brings out higher spces on iPads, the Mini 2 and 3 and Air 2 will become the new entry point models - very cheap but with capabilities competitors still struggle to match.
Mini is already dead, 6 Plus killed it. It just shows how fragile the use-cases were for iPad, especially given how limited it is in functionality compared to full-blown Windows x86 devices.
This sort of comment is just stupid. Compare the costs of a mini and an iPhone6+ --- not to mention the contract. Which are you going to give to your kid to play games on, or watch movies on?
@name99 I don't have kids yet, but my brother does, and they give them their iPhone 6s to play with. They fight over who gets to play with the Plus though. 1 less thing to carry, 1 less thing to charge, just get a good insurance plan with the money you don't have to spend on an iPad Mini, anymore.
And just to prove there's actual fact behind this shift in mentality.
Its the same reason the Surface Pro 3 has gained traction in the marketplace. Why bother carrying a tablet and a laptop when you can get a suitable alternative to both in a single device?
Its amazing you guys keep repeating all the key indicators that everyone with an iPad keeps saying, they're in no hurry to buy a new one. Existing markets are saturated. Apple has to try and find new markets to sell in, y'know, markets that somehow avoided the initial tablet rush to begin (for some undesirable reason or another) with which leads us to the reality that iPad is struggling. While it still turns out solid sales and revenue, it is obviously on the decline and NOT the next iPhone. If iPhone wasn't seeing such huge growth, the concern over declining iPad sales and demand would be much greater.
I give you points for taking simple facts and then contorting them into the most bizarre results but the reality is everything you stated is BS.
The iPad sales have dipped because it was too popular too quickly. You think that's a problem but it's a problem every company wishes they had. Their iPad markets being saturated doesn't mean there are no new buyers or repeat buyers, and if you remove the iPhone from the equation the iPad becomes the highest money maker for Apple and the key envy of all vendors. Let's remember that 5 years ago it didn't exist, and despite you obviously not understand what the iPad is for when a "real computer" can do so much more its unit sales quickly shot past the iPhone's unit sale for the first 5 years on the market. Let's also remember that's with a higher ASP for first years.
Let me repeat in case you still don't understand: THE IPAD ISN'T GOING AWAY. IT'S THE PRIMARY COMPUTING DEVICE FOR A LARGE PART OF THE POPULATION. THIS DROP IS JUST A CORRECTION AFTER AN UNPRECEDENTED RISE, NOT YOUR WEIRD "CONCERNS" OVER DOOMED iPAD SALES.
LMAO, no BS, another buffoon that doesn't seem to understand what "market saturation" means.
You said it yourself: "The iPad sales have dipped because it was too popular too quickly."
If Apple goes to market and sells 200 million devices to their primary addressable market of 300 million, but sees few repeat buyers with an annual 10-20% hardware turnover rate during their expected product life cycle, the market is saturated. Now they aren't getting the sales they want in their original target markets (well-defined, affluent markets like NA, EU, Japan) and they have to venture off into the side alley markets like India and Russia and sell at a fraction of the volume, profit, and revenue, that's what they have to do but that doesn't diminish the fact iPad sales are declining on a product line that is NOT going to be the next iPhone.
Again, no one is saying iPad is going to disappear completely, its just going to be relegated to the niche toy device it is and it is NOT ever going to enjoy those initial success level again.
"You said it yourself: "The iPad sales have dipped because it was too popular too quickly.""
Yes, the correction is due to multiple factors for a breakaway device that is atypical, but you don't seem to realize there are 1) multiple markets, not just one, and 2) that markets change. An iPad Pro will increase market interest (see iPhone 6 series). A less expensive iPad will increase market interest (see MacBook Air).
"... side alley markets…"
Yeah, just how no one in Asia will ever buy an Apple product because their technology so much more advanced than in the West. They had TV on their cellphones after all. /s
"Again, no one is saying iPad is going to disappear completely, its just going to be relegated to the niche toy device it is and it is NOT ever going to enjoy those initial success level again."
And yet your comments and many other comments here and elsewhere are suggesting the iPad is doomed.
@solipsism No, I fully understand there are multiple markets and they change, I also understand the markets Apple is forced to chase are not their typical markets and as a result, their sales overall are DECLINING because they are chasing less lucrative markets. Again, you can try to sell your goods in the main market where it is easy and profitable if you have good product, or you can try selling to a handful in the side alleys and streets. That doesn't change the fact if you are resorting to the latter, the market is saturated. I don't understand how this is hard to understand.
Not sure what the Asian market comment is supposed to be about. Apple products are huge in affluent Asian markets like Japan, the markets they are forced to chase now are much harder to penetrate, despite high populations because they are much less affluent (China, India).
Uh where did I say it was doomed, here or elsewhere? iPad in its current incarnation is just going to be a toy niche market where it belongs, but it is NOT going to be the next massive growth vector for Apple, plain and simple. If the iPhone wasn't actually getting MORE popular in its 6th major iteration, Apple would be in a lot of trouble and not steamrolling their way towards $1Tn market cap.
You are saying isolated facts that are true, but you're not connecting them into coherent sense. Yes, Apple will sell fewer iPads per year going forward. Why is that a problem? Do you believe that the annual numbers will be so small that they cannot be made efficiently? Do you believe that the annual numbers will be so small that Apple cannot cover the costs of R&D?
If neither of these are true, then the smaller sales are a sad matter for Apple's stockowners, but have FSCKALL effect on Apple's customers, or their role in the future of tech.
@name99 again, I never said anything of the sort, of course Apple is going to keep making iPad as long as it is profitable, but that doesn't change the fact the tablet market is saturated and iPad sales will continue to decline until they address the key issues with functionality to try and increase typical use-cases, thus opening more opportunity for increasing the market again.
Like I said before, iPad will need to become more of a 2-in-1 or laptop replacement if it wants to experience actual growth again, and the first step in that direction is ditching iOS and moving to OS X, at the minimum. Problem is, Apple has shown no inclination of making a touch capable version of OS X, so there's that.
Chizow, you are confused. If 40-70% of buyers are new to the iPad (40% in the US, 70 in China), pray tell how is that not market growth or how is that a saturated market? It’s not the explosive market growth that Apple needs to have to not be doomed, apparently, but it’s nowhere near the kind of numbers that would make any company rethink their strategy for a whole product line (like trying to shoehorn OS X onto iPads).
There is absolutely no space for an iPad device running OS X that would fit between the new MacBook and the rumored 12" iPad. But don’t take my word for it—just try to find sales numbers for something like the Lenovo Yoga (or, heck, the whole "convertible laptop" market) and see how many millions of those Lenovo et al have sold.
@xype, you are kidding right? You could have 100% sales to new users in any market, but if total sales DECLINED and you are only selling say, 100 units, you wouldn't say that the tablet market is saturated and in overall decline?
Again, if you have a world population of 7Bn and you sold 300 million one year, 300 million the year after, 200 million the year after that but you only sold 100 million the next year, even if those 100 million are all new users, your market is saturated and DECLINING. Especially when those previous 1Bn are in no hurry to buy new tablets. Even the ones who seem to be in denial about market saturation seem to agree on that. So who are you going to sell next year's tablets to? The aborigines in the rainforests? The sweatshop workers in China making these devices?
iPad sales have been in decline for the last 2 years or so and that is because the tablet market is saturated and these devices are not obsoleting at a fast enough rate to spur increased demand to offset the decline in total addressable market.
There is plenty of room actually in that $800-1000 range, but it involves killing off the MBA, which is exactly what an OS X iPad would do. The new MacBook has pretty much killed off the MBA anyways, but an OS X 2-in-1 iPad would seal its fate.
And why point at the Lenovo Yoga when we can point at the Surface Pro 3 that shows this market for convertibles is not only successful, but continuing to grow?
"Again, if you have a world population of 7Bn and you sold 300 million one year, 300 million the year after, 200 million the year after that but you only sold 100 million the next year, even if those 100 million are all new users, your market is saturated and DECLINING."
Not necessarily. When 40% to 70% of iPad sales are to new users, depending on country of course, it can also mean that the overall iPad user base is increasing, albeit at a declining rate. If iPad had reached saturation, the overall user base would either stay stagnant or even shrink but that doesn't seem to be happening. At least not yet.
Why does the iPad NEED to become a laptop replacement? What problem does this solve for Apple or its customers? Apple is in the business of selling tools that work well; it's not in the business of selling sporks that do ten things badly (but at least they're cheap).
Just because something CAN be done doesn't mean it makes sense to do it. This is as true for tablet+laptop mashups as it was for XTerminals or netbooks or Apple's Ping.
@name99, I just explained why, if they are happy with being a toy device in a shrinking niche market, by all means, make no changes and watch iPad sales continue to decline. If they want to grow the device to new addressable markets, they need to make changes, plain and simple.
All the comments from the various iPad supporters in this thread have done nothing but reinforce my position. People are happy with their existing iPads because it is a simple device of limited capabilities. They don't feel the need to buy a new one because there simply isn't any reason to given the limited functionality of the platform and iOS ecosystem.
Do you understand English? We are saying "the key indicators that everyone with an iPad keeps saying, they're in no hurry to buy a new one". That's what saturated market MEANS. You seem to think you are contradicting us, but you are exactly agreeing with us. I'm not sure where your rage and anger are coming from.
@name99 who are you addressing with this comment? If you are talking to me maybe you should check your own reading comprehension skills because clearly the ones who do not understand what market saturation means are the ones in denial relative to iPad's declining sales.
Agreed, tablets tend to remain perfectly usable longer. The new MB might morph into that iPad Pro, if they don't kill the Air outright and replace it with a MB hybrid that's just MB internals plus touchscreen... They're probably resisting the urge to follow the current tho, but if hybrids gain momentum they'll find some new spin to claim reinvention and throw out their own. Frankly I think that maket's a bit limited too (to mobile pros and students, but maybe that's large enough).
Well they still need to make the rather large jump from a touch capable device to a touch capable iOS device. I think they are dragging their feet on this because there is a good chance whatever device they create kills off or cannibalizes sales from either the high-end iPads or the MBAs or both.
Uhm, most of the people I know have an iPad, actually. And they use them a lot. They’re just buying used or keeping their older models. Short of iOS developers, who need the newest devices, people are still ok with an iPad mini or iPad 2 and are in no hurry to upgrade, though—for them it’s an internet appliance with the odd casual game thrown in and the option to play some music or take a bad-quality picture.
And this is exactly why iPad sales are struggling. The tablet/iPad market is being cannibalized on the low-end by phablets (especially the 6 plus) and on the higher-end, they can't replace hybrid, 2-in-1s or ultrabook/macbook form factors for productivity and enterprise.
I know its hard for Apple fans to come to grips with this reality, but other brands have been making big phablets for far longer than Apple's 6+. /shocker. Oh, and those people MIGHT just be willing to venture outside of the Apple ecosystem, even *GASP* using devices from both ecosystems simultaneously. Phablets have been eroding low-end iPad sales for some time, especially the iPad Mini which unsurprisingly, has been rumored to be on the chopping block. The higher than expected sales of the iPhone 6+ made that decision easy for them I am sure.
Also, its not just impacting Apple. Google for example ran away from their low-cost 7" form factor on their latest Nexus tablet in favor of a 9" "premium" device for the same reasons.
You're totally misinterpreting the point. The issue is (a)if you are poor, the phone is the first device you buy. This covers iPhone vs iPad in China and suchlike. (b) an iPad is good enough to last for three years or more before it needs to be replaced (and when it is replaced, it moves down to become a kids tablet, or a car TV screen). There is not the artificial telco pricing behind iPads that encourages you to update them every two years. Phones are also somewhat more stressed (used in ways that are more likely to fall on hard surfaces, fall in water, get lost in restaurants, etc) but I don't know if this is a significant part of the turnover.
Point is, it was always crazy to imagine that iPads would reach iPhone turnover rates. Anyone pushing that claim was simply an idiot who didn't understand the economics behind the devices. The tapering off in sales is what you'd expect after the first wave of accumulation. I expect it will now flatten off. Fewer sales in the US (because the iPad Air2 really is a good, long lived machine) balanced by slowly growing sales outside the US.
I expect the watch to follow (in a few years) the same pattern. The first two or three models will sell like crazy to an empty market, and to people who really WANT the performance, battery life, and features of 2016 and 2017's models. After that (once again, no telcos forcing artificial pricing models) I expect turnover to slow down quite a bit as people find their model good enough and only replace it after four years or so, or when they somehow lose or destroy it.
This mirrors my own usage patterns. I was pretty enthusiastic about tablets a few years ago, but since betting an 11 inch MBA in 2013 I pretty much never touch my tablet (s).
I just got a 8" Samsung tablet a (Galaxy Tab 4 8 or something, for 199) few weeks ago, this form factor is really perfect. a lot more screen area than a 7" tablet, very very thin and light per the usual by Samsung. Thing is like half the size of an ipad, yet still has a significantly larger screen than even a 7" tablet let alone a phablet (my phone is a 5.1" Galaxy S 5 and the tablet screen is in another size class).
Anyways yeah, most people dont care but for me that 8" size is just perfect. Very very portable tablet, barely bigger than a large phone, you could throw it anywhere on the go, yet lots of screen estate.
I wish they'd stop giving away their hard earned billions to shareholders in the form of dividends. What do they ever do? Apple could easily fund its operations without shareholder capital.
They should just spend their money buying back as many shares as possible and limiting the amount of input/control the public has on them.
LOL is this comment serious? A shareholder owns part of the company and lends the company their own capital and equity to go out and make more money. If you lent someone money, or bought a stake in a company, wouldn't you expect a return on your investment? How is being a stakeholder in Apple any different? Companies that DON'T pay dividends tend to see their stock prices drop, and thus, their ability to raise capital decreases as well...
You keep saying sold or sales instead of shipped.There is a difference. They sold 60 million iphones, they shipped 61.1 They sold 13.7 mil ipads, they shipped 12.6 The iphone sales are not unseasonal really. The high demand in China was expected and it's on a few factors. The average screen size in China is at about 5 inch now so Apple users with their ridiculously tiny 4 inch screens really needed an upgrade, more so than in other regions. Unlike last year,they had a full quarter of China Mobile sales. China still had shortages in Q4 because Apple prioritized markets that celebrate xmas. The rest of the world was more or less seasonal in Q1. Apple could have easily shipped 63-65 million iphone actually. They need to up inventory in the channel but it looks like they postponed that to make Q2 look better.
Not sure how you can be numb to good results when they have been bleeding share for years and results haven't been all that good.They are regaining now a bit of share on a huge upgrade cycle but that will end soon and Tim Cook is likely not smart enough for Apple to launch what it needs to. (guess there is a reason Apple''s results get covered but that's not the case for any other phone maker - M$ is not that). Also to note that Apple claims low margins on the watch and that can only mean huge production problems.
It's not a difficult task given the deluge of mistakes he makes. Just take the watch, the hardware and software are utter garbage, the pricing is insane, they completely messed up the launch and now production. It's very very hard to do worse than that. Since he took over he messed up the ipad mini first gen specs and price, the iphone 5C was the wrong product , a bigger iphone was years late, they had a great number of logistics problems ( one so big that it killed margins), Apple Maps was launched, Siri is still poor , quality problems are persisting, Apple's designs have been poor and poorer. Plus he has no vision at all.
That's rather funny since i only noticed the dual cores U version in the Pro some 10minutes ago by accident. To be fair this tendency for less CPU power is being pushed hard by Intel , with low power versions and Atom based SKUs The market is flooded by Celerons and U versions so Apple only did what everybody else is doing. Maybe it gets better if AMD gets back on track next year.
@jjj & beck2050, Apple have yet again turned in bigger profits than any tech company, probably in history, and you think you can do better! Anandtech is really not the site for you, you are meant to be *informed*, considerate, and reasonable on this site. Try DailyTech, much more your style.
I'm annoyed by the fact that the Macbook Pros, with their retina displays, often feel slower in day to day use than freaking Macbook Airs, at 1.5-2x the cost.
Since Tim Cook took over as Apple CEO, revenue, earnings and market cap have more than doubled.. That is a pretty profitable "the deluge of mistakes" IMO. Meanwhile, Microsoft has gone backwards, along with the PC market. Apple has more total revenue and earnings than Microsoft and Google combined. No other US company comes close today, or yesterday. Not Exxon, not Microsft at its peak, no one. Mr. Cook must be doing something right.
If you think Apple's success is a "deluge of mistakes" I can't imagine what you would actually call a success. I, for one, would love to have a company that had a 1% of the success Cook has had in running Apple.
Those numbers are just insane. Apple is one of the largest economic entities in the world, their revenue is larger than the majority of countries. Heck, they have a combined revenue larger than the *combined* GDP of the *37* countries with the smallest GDP.
This is just crazy. Anyway, I prefer Apple as the top dog than than Microsoft, Samsung, Google, IBM, etc. Apple knows how make something that really looks good and feels good, which is more than what you could say for 99% of the rest of the bunch.
iPad sales reduced. However, 5.4b$ is not a small amount of money. I'm sure other companies would be happy to pull that in for any of their product categories...
It doesn't matter how much revenue and profit the iPad is pulling in, it's less than the iPhone so it means Apple is going under. Everyone should sell their stock and invest in Amazon.
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webdoctors - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
Wow, big drop in tablets of 20%. Makes sense, most ppl just use their phones or laptops. Tablets try to fill a gap now that no one needs/wants.Thermogenic - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
The Surface line is gaining momentum, but still no where near the iPad in terms of sales. I do agree though that a "tablet" won't be a thing in five years. It will just be another form factor of a notebook or phone.solipsism - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
You're saying that there will be no iPad in 5 years time, as in April 2020? Really?!Impulses - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
Tablets were always a luxury, they never developed a killer usage case or app, they're just nicer to use on the couch than your phone or laptop... That's enough of a thing to carry them forward, just not for them to explode into a must have device.kmmatney - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
Tablets don't need to be replaced as often as phones - they take far less abuse. We have three iPads at the house - iPad3, iPad4, and an iPad Air, and the old iPad 3 plenty fast enough for anything you can do on an iPad. I'm sure when iPad sales start to really fall, Apple will come up with a new model to spur interest - maybe a larger screen, or OSX integration. The screen size of the Surface Pro 3 is really nice, but I'm not sure if the Microsoft tablet will cut into iPad sales, or cut into Windows laptop sales.Brakken - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
I also think the Surface will become more popluar as MS rolls out Win10. If they could simply get Win7 running smoothly on it, I reckon it would sell. But I also think the Surface is a laptop. To me, a tablet is something that can be operated with fingers, not something that simply works better with keyboards and a mice.MarcSP - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
I have a Surface 2, and I use it 99% of the time with my fingers. I don't even have a type or touch cover. Web browsing works great with IE, and email, and messaging, and games...Really, it can be used perfectly as a tablet with no other accesory.
The difference with iPad is that, if YOU want or need, with Surface you can have MORE, add keyboard and mouse, and increase productivity.
danjw - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
There are places where tablets make sense, but not always usually with consumers. Cockpits as electronic flight bags (EFB), on warehouse floors, ...So I don't see them going away entirely, but they do seem to be struggling in the consumer space. I expect that transformable tablet/laptops have a place in the consumer space. Some want more power or just a bigger screen than a phablet.
Either way it will be interesting to see where mobile devices go over the next few years.
solipsism - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
Your weirdly pessimistic view of tablets is common on tech sites, especially the one that seem to have an excessive amount of posters that think Apple shouldn't exist and that if you don't build your own PC you're a tool, but your understanding of the tablet market is incorrect.Despite YoY unit sales loses (for about 2 years now?) the iPad has still a few dozen million units ahead of the iPhone for the same duration on the market since launch. Let's remember that Apple has some over 130 MM iPhone in the last 6 months alone. That should tell you just how impressive the iPad's meteoric rise has been.
If you also consider that most iPad users tend to use them for years and then hand them down to others you would see that the iPad has a very different lifecycle than that of the "PC" and smartphone. Believe me when I tell you that it's not going to vanish.
seapeople - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
Excellent comment. My fourth generation retina display iPad is 2.5 years old and works just as well as when it was new.In a similar vein, my iPod classic from 2007 still works like a charm despite nearly constant use these last 8 years.
Meanwhile, my iPhone 4 feels slow and ancient and is due for an upgrade very soon.
There is no way the iPad can keep up with the iPhone's sales pace now that market saturation has been reached. Sales will likely continue to decline to since the product life cycle is much longer.
djboxbaba - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
iPhone 4 man? that was due for an upgrade 2 years ago :Pchizow - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
I think you and the other poster touched on the reason Tablets markets have become saturated, because they aren't obsoleted easily and in general, there's very little content/capability that a tablet from a few years ago can't do that a brand new one today can. Reality of it is, tablets aren't good enough for productivity/enterprise and there isn't enough demanding content to force people to upgrade. Most of the main cards have been played (resolution, battery life, thin-ness).Phone market is different though, Apple just played the size card, their next target will be resolution. Now the goals for everyone will be improving battery life as soon the phone market will reach market saturation in terms of absolute performance. There's no doubt we're going to start seeing people hold onto their phones longer as there are going to be fewer big reasons to force people to upgrade.
Anyways, biggest reason iPads are stagnating is because they have limited functionality in the enterprise. That's the market that can keep turning over Apple hardware, but there's just too many limitations on iPad/iOS compared to something like the Surface Pro. Only chance Apple has is to do something similar with an iPad Pro running Mac OS X at the minimum. While Mac OS also sucks for enterprise integration, it is still far better than iOS.
shameermulji - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
"Tablets markets have become saturated, ..."According to Tim Cook, on today's conference call, 40% to 70% of iPad sales are going to new users, depending on country. Per his statements, this does not reflect a saturated iPad market.
Either he's blowing smoking up our asses or you and the poster above have data he doesn't.
chizow - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
40-70% of an ever decreasing total sales number with a focus in new markets. Existing markets are saturated so he's trying to sell them to different markets and clearly, not doing that well at it. It's not like the smartphone market where there's a clearly defined 2 yr. refresh cycle and high chance of repeat buyers.So yeah, if they sold 80 million iPads in NA in the last 5 years and no one there is in a rush to buy a new one, the 20 million he sells in India this year will technically be going to "New Users", but that doesn't change the fact existing tablet markets are saturated and they are being forced to seek out new markets.
xype - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
Uhm, I know the total iPad sales are "not impressive" (as much as selling 10+ million units can be interpreted as "not impressive"), but 40-70% to new users is actually quite good—and it _does_ mean the market in general is not yet saturated. Parts of the market are, yes, but worldwide they are still selling to new customers, who in turn might be upgrading their devices in 3-4 years or more.Everyone I know with an iPad is in no hurry to get a new one, though, including myself with the mini 2 and a bunch of people I know who are still quite happy with their iPad 2 (which is even pre-retina!). And the fact that people use their phones way more, like someone already mentioned, also puts less pressure on the tablets being updated.
I guess in a way Apple succeeded in turning the iPad into a "real appliance"; upgrading them regularly just isn’t on people’s radar. That doesn’t mean noone wants an iPad anymore, though.
Brakken - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
Agree. With 6 Plus I no longer felt any necessity in upgrading the original Mini to a 2 or 3. As Apple brings out higher spces on iPads, the Mini 2 and 3 and Air 2 will become the new entry point models - very cheap but with capabilities competitors still struggle to match.chizow - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
Mini is already dead, 6 Plus killed it. It just shows how fragile the use-cases were for iPad, especially given how limited it is in functionality compared to full-blown Windows x86 devices.name99 - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
This sort of comment is just stupid. Compare the costs of a mini and an iPhone6+ --- not to mention the contract.Which are you going to give to your kid to play games on, or watch movies on?
chizow - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
@name99 I don't have kids yet, but my brother does, and they give them their iPhone 6s to play with. They fight over who gets to play with the Plus though. 1 less thing to carry, 1 less thing to charge, just get a good insurance plan with the money you don't have to spend on an iPad Mini, anymore.And just to prove there's actual fact behind this shift in mentality.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/26/iphone-6-and-6-pl...
Its the same reason the Surface Pro 3 has gained traction in the marketplace. Why bother carrying a tablet and a laptop when you can get a suitable alternative to both in a single device?
chizow - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
Its amazing you guys keep repeating all the key indicators that everyone with an iPad keeps saying, they're in no hurry to buy a new one. Existing markets are saturated. Apple has to try and find new markets to sell in, y'know, markets that somehow avoided the initial tablet rush to begin (for some undesirable reason or another) with which leads us to the reality that iPad is struggling. While it still turns out solid sales and revenue, it is obviously on the decline and NOT the next iPhone. If iPhone wasn't seeing such huge growth, the concern over declining iPad sales and demand would be much greater.solipsism - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
I give you points for taking simple facts and then contorting them into the most bizarre results but the reality is everything you stated is BS.The iPad sales have dipped because it was too popular too quickly. You think that's a problem but it's a problem every company wishes they had. Their iPad markets being saturated doesn't mean there are no new buyers or repeat buyers, and if you remove the iPhone from the equation the iPad becomes the highest money maker for Apple and the key envy of all vendors. Let's remember that 5 years ago it didn't exist, and despite you obviously not understand what the iPad is for when a "real computer" can do so much more its unit sales quickly shot past the iPhone's unit sale for the first 5 years on the market. Let's also remember that's with a higher ASP for first years.
Let me repeat in case you still don't understand: THE IPAD ISN'T GOING AWAY. IT'S THE PRIMARY COMPUTING DEVICE FOR A LARGE PART OF THE POPULATION. THIS DROP IS JUST A CORRECTION AFTER AN UNPRECEDENTED RISE, NOT YOUR WEIRD "CONCERNS" OVER DOOMED iPAD SALES.
chizow - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
LMAO, no BS, another buffoon that doesn't seem to understand what "market saturation" means.You said it yourself: "The iPad sales have dipped because it was too popular too quickly."
If Apple goes to market and sells 200 million devices to their primary addressable market of 300 million, but sees few repeat buyers with an annual 10-20% hardware turnover rate during their expected product life cycle, the market is saturated. Now they aren't getting the sales they want in their original target markets (well-defined, affluent markets like NA, EU, Japan) and they have to venture off into the side alley markets like India and Russia and sell at a fraction of the volume, profit, and revenue, that's what they have to do but that doesn't diminish the fact iPad sales are declining on a product line that is NOT going to be the next iPhone.
Again, no one is saying iPad is going to disappear completely, its just going to be relegated to the niche toy device it is and it is NOT ever going to enjoy those initial success level again.
solipsism - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
"You said it yourself: "The iPad sales have dipped because it was too popular too quickly.""Yes, the correction is due to multiple factors for a breakaway device that is atypical, but you don't seem to realize there are 1) multiple markets, not just one, and 2) that markets change. An iPad Pro will increase market interest (see iPhone 6 series). A less expensive iPad will increase market interest (see MacBook Air).
"... side alley markets…"
Yeah, just how no one in Asia will ever buy an Apple product because their technology so much more advanced than in the West. They had TV on their cellphones after all. /s
"Again, no one is saying iPad is going to disappear completely, its just going to be relegated to the niche toy device it is and it is NOT ever going to enjoy those initial success level again."
And yet your comments and many other comments here and elsewhere are suggesting the iPad is doomed.
chizow - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
@solipsism No, I fully understand there are multiple markets and they change, I also understand the markets Apple is forced to chase are not their typical markets and as a result, their sales overall are DECLINING because they are chasing less lucrative markets. Again, you can try to sell your goods in the main market where it is easy and profitable if you have good product, or you can try selling to a handful in the side alleys and streets. That doesn't change the fact if you are resorting to the latter, the market is saturated. I don't understand how this is hard to understand.Not sure what the Asian market comment is supposed to be about. Apple products are huge in affluent Asian markets like Japan, the markets they are forced to chase now are much harder to penetrate, despite high populations because they are much less affluent (China, India).
Uh where did I say it was doomed, here or elsewhere? iPad in its current incarnation is just going to be a toy niche market where it belongs, but it is NOT going to be the next massive growth vector for Apple, plain and simple. If the iPhone wasn't actually getting MORE popular in its 6th major iteration, Apple would be in a lot of trouble and not steamrolling their way towards $1Tn market cap.
name99 - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
You are saying isolated facts that are true, but you're not connecting them into coherent sense.Yes, Apple will sell fewer iPads per year going forward. Why is that a problem?
Do you believe that the annual numbers will be so small that they cannot be made efficiently?
Do you believe that the annual numbers will be so small that Apple cannot cover the costs of R&D?
If neither of these are true, then the smaller sales are a sad matter for Apple's stockowners, but have FSCKALL effect on Apple's customers, or their role in the future of tech.
chizow - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
@name99 again, I never said anything of the sort, of course Apple is going to keep making iPad as long as it is profitable, but that doesn't change the fact the tablet market is saturated and iPad sales will continue to decline until they address the key issues with functionality to try and increase typical use-cases, thus opening more opportunity for increasing the market again.Like I said before, iPad will need to become more of a 2-in-1 or laptop replacement if it wants to experience actual growth again, and the first step in that direction is ditching iOS and moving to OS X, at the minimum. Problem is, Apple has shown no inclination of making a touch capable version of OS X, so there's that.
xype - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
Chizow, you are confused. If 40-70% of buyers are new to the iPad (40% in the US, 70 in China), pray tell how is that not market growth or how is that a saturated market? It’s not the explosive market growth that Apple needs to have to not be doomed, apparently, but it’s nowhere near the kind of numbers that would make any company rethink their strategy for a whole product line (like trying to shoehorn OS X onto iPads).There is absolutely no space for an iPad device running OS X that would fit between the new MacBook and the rumored 12" iPad. But don’t take my word for it—just try to find sales numbers for something like the Lenovo Yoga (or, heck, the whole "convertible laptop" market) and see how many millions of those Lenovo et al have sold.
chizow - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
@xype, you are kidding right? You could have 100% sales to new users in any market, but if total sales DECLINED and you are only selling say, 100 units, you wouldn't say that the tablet market is saturated and in overall decline?Again, if you have a world population of 7Bn and you sold 300 million one year, 300 million the year after, 200 million the year after that but you only sold 100 million the next year, even if those 100 million are all new users, your market is saturated and DECLINING. Especially when those previous 1Bn are in no hurry to buy new tablets. Even the ones who seem to be in denial about market saturation seem to agree on that. So who are you going to sell next year's tablets to? The aborigines in the rainforests? The sweatshop workers in China making these devices?
iPad sales have been in decline for the last 2 years or so and that is because the tablet market is saturated and these devices are not obsoleting at a fast enough rate to spur increased demand to offset the decline in total addressable market.
There is plenty of room actually in that $800-1000 range, but it involves killing off the MBA, which is exactly what an OS X iPad would do. The new MacBook has pretty much killed off the MBA anyways, but an OS X 2-in-1 iPad would seal its fate.
And why point at the Lenovo Yoga when we can point at the Surface Pro 3 that shows this market for convertibles is not only successful, but continuing to grow?
shameermulji - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
"Again, if you have a world population of 7Bn and you sold 300 million one year, 300 million the year after, 200 million the year after that but you only sold 100 million the next year, even if those 100 million are all new users, your market is saturated and DECLINING."Not necessarily. When 40% to 70% of iPad sales are to new users, depending on country of course, it can also mean that the overall iPad user base is increasing, albeit at a declining rate. If iPad had reached saturation, the overall user base would either stay stagnant or even shrink but that doesn't seem to be happening. At least not yet.
name99 - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
Why does the iPad NEED to become a laptop replacement? What problem does this solve for Apple or its customers?Apple is in the business of selling tools that work well; it's not in the business of selling sporks that do ten things badly (but at least they're cheap).
Just because something CAN be done doesn't mean it makes sense to do it. This is as true for tablet+laptop mashups as it was for XTerminals or netbooks or Apple's Ping.
chizow - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
@name99, I just explained why, if they are happy with being a toy device in a shrinking niche market, by all means, make no changes and watch iPad sales continue to decline. If they want to grow the device to new addressable markets, they need to make changes, plain and simple.All the comments from the various iPad supporters in this thread have done nothing but reinforce my position. People are happy with their existing iPads because it is a simple device of limited capabilities. They don't feel the need to buy a new one because there simply isn't any reason to given the limited functionality of the platform and iOS ecosystem.
name99 - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
Do you understand English?We are saying "the key indicators that everyone with an iPad keeps saying, they're in no hurry to buy a new one". That's what saturated market MEANS.
You seem to think you are contradicting us, but you are exactly agreeing with us. I'm not sure where your rage and anger are coming from.
chizow - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
@name99 who are you addressing with this comment? If you are talking to me maybe you should check your own reading comprehension skills because clearly the ones who do not understand what market saturation means are the ones in denial relative to iPad's declining sales.Jumangi - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
That don't have the money to spend on a device like an iPad, hence the lower sales.Impulses - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
Agreed, tablets tend to remain perfectly usable longer. The new MB might morph into that iPad Pro, if they don't kill the Air outright and replace it with a MB hybrid that's just MB internals plus touchscreen... They're probably resisting the urge to follow the current tho, but if hybrids gain momentum they'll find some new spin to claim reinvention and throw out their own. Frankly I think that maket's a bit limited too (to mobile pros and students, but maybe that's large enough).chizow - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
Well they still need to make the rather large jump from a touch capable device to a touch capable iOS device. I think they are dragging their feet on this because there is a good chance whatever device they create kills off or cannibalizes sales from either the high-end iPads or the MBAs or both.xype - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
Uhm, most of the people I know have an iPad, actually. And they use them a lot. They’re just buying used or keeping their older models. Short of iOS developers, who need the newest devices, people are still ok with an iPad mini or iPad 2 and are in no hurry to upgrade, though—for them it’s an internet appliance with the odd casual game thrown in and the option to play some music or take a bad-quality picture.chizow - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
And this is exactly why iPad sales are struggling. The tablet/iPad market is being cannibalized on the low-end by phablets (especially the 6 plus) and on the higher-end, they can't replace hybrid, 2-in-1s or ultrabook/macbook form factors for productivity and enterprise.solipsism - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
iPad sales started dipping long before the iPhone 6 series was ever announced so you're saying it was a preemptive "struggling"?chizow - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
I know its hard for Apple fans to come to grips with this reality, but other brands have been making big phablets for far longer than Apple's 6+. /shocker. Oh, and those people MIGHT just be willing to venture outside of the Apple ecosystem, even *GASP* using devices from both ecosystems simultaneously. Phablets have been eroding low-end iPad sales for some time, especially the iPad Mini which unsurprisingly, has been rumored to be on the chopping block. The higher than expected sales of the iPhone 6+ made that decision easy for them I am sure.https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=apple+phasing...
Also, its not just impacting Apple. Google for example ran away from their low-cost 7" form factor on their latest Nexus tablet in favor of a 9" "premium" device for the same reasons.
Murloc - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
that's exactly why tablets are a waste of money, but I guess somebody has to make the market go round...name99 - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
You're totally misinterpreting the point. The issue is(a)if you are poor, the phone is the first device you buy. This covers iPhone vs iPad in China and suchlike.
(b) an iPad is good enough to last for three years or more before it needs to be replaced (and when it is replaced, it moves down to become a kids tablet, or a car TV screen). There is not the artificial telco pricing behind iPads that encourages you to update them every two years. Phones are also somewhat more stressed (used in ways that are more likely to fall on hard surfaces, fall in water, get lost in restaurants, etc) but I don't know if this is a significant part of the turnover.
Point is, it was always crazy to imagine that iPads would reach iPhone turnover rates. Anyone pushing that claim was simply an idiot who didn't understand the economics behind the devices. The tapering off in sales is what you'd expect after the first wave of accumulation. I expect it will now flatten off. Fewer sales in the US (because the iPad Air2 really is a good, long lived machine) balanced by slowly growing sales outside the US.
I expect the watch to follow (in a few years) the same pattern. The first two or three models will sell like crazy to an empty market, and to people who really WANT the performance, battery life, and features of 2016 and 2017's models. After that (once again, no telcos forcing artificial pricing models) I expect turnover to slow down quite a bit as people find their model good enough and only replace it after four years or so, or when they somehow lose or destroy it.
This is standard white goods theory.
ASEdouardD - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
This mirrors my own usage patterns. I was pretty enthusiastic about tablets a few years ago, but since betting an 11 inch MBA in 2013 I pretty much never touch my tablet (s).bill5 - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
I just got a 8" Samsung tablet a (Galaxy Tab 4 8 or something, for 199) few weeks ago, this form factor is really perfect. a lot more screen area than a 7" tablet, very very thin and light per the usual by Samsung. Thing is like half the size of an ipad, yet still has a significantly larger screen than even a 7" tablet let alone a phablet (my phone is a 5.1" Galaxy S 5 and the tablet screen is in another size class).Anyways yeah, most people dont care but for me that 8" size is just perfect. Very very portable tablet, barely bigger than a large phone, you could throw it anywhere on the go, yet lots of screen estate.
sonicmerlin - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
I wish they'd stop giving away their hard earned billions to shareholders in the form of dividends. What do they ever do? Apple could easily fund its operations without shareholder capital.They should just spend their money buying back as many shares as possible and limiting the amount of input/control the public has on them.
chizow - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
LOL is this comment serious? A shareholder owns part of the company and lends the company their own capital and equity to go out and make more money. If you lent someone money, or bought a stake in a company, wouldn't you expect a return on your investment? How is being a stakeholder in Apple any different? Companies that DON'T pay dividends tend to see their stock prices drop, and thus, their ability to raise capital decreases as well...jjj - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
You keep saying sold or sales instead of shipped.There is a difference.They sold 60 million iphones, they shipped 61.1
They sold 13.7 mil ipads, they shipped 12.6
The iphone sales are not unseasonal really.
The high demand in China was expected and it's on a few factors.
The average screen size in China is at about 5 inch now so Apple users with their ridiculously tiny 4 inch screens really needed an upgrade, more so than in other regions.
Unlike last year,they had a full quarter of China Mobile sales.
China still had shortages in Q4 because Apple prioritized markets that celebrate xmas.
The rest of the world was more or less seasonal in Q1.
Apple could have easily shipped 63-65 million iphone actually. They need to up inventory in the channel but it looks like they postponed that to make Q2 look better.
Not sure how you can be numb to good results when they have been bleeding share for years and results haven't been all that good.They are regaining now a bit of share on a huge upgrade cycle but that will end soon and Tim Cook is likely not smart enough for Apple to launch what it needs to. (guess there is a reason Apple''s results get covered but that's not the case for any other phone maker - M$ is not that).
Also to note that Apple claims low margins on the watch and that can only mean huge production problems.
bathotropic - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
Are you smarter than Tim Cook?jjj - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
It's not a difficult task given the deluge of mistakes he makes.Just take the watch, the hardware and software are utter garbage, the pricing is insane, they completely messed up the launch and now production. It's very very hard to do worse than that.
Since he took over he messed up the ipad mini first gen specs and price, the iphone 5C was the wrong product , a bigger iphone was years late, they had a great number of logistics problems ( one so big that it killed margins), Apple Maps was launched, Siri is still poor , quality problems are persisting, Apple's designs have been poor and poorer.
Plus he has no vision at all.
beck2050 - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
Not to mention he's turned the Macbook Pro into an underpowered toy for college kids.jjj - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
That's rather funny since i only noticed the dual cores U version in the Pro some 10minutes ago by accident.To be fair this tendency for less CPU power is being pushed hard by Intel , with low power versions and Atom based SKUs
The market is flooded by Celerons and U versions so Apple only did what everybody else is doing. Maybe it gets better if AMD gets back on track next year.
Impulses - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
You have more faith on AMD than Tim Cook? :pshameermulji - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
Last time I checked, he didn't turn the MBP into anything. It's still around and he just ADDED to the Mac line.hlovatt - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
@jjj & beck2050,Apple have yet again turned in bigger profits than any tech company, probably in history, and you think you can do better! Anandtech is really not the site for you, you are meant to be *informed*, considerate, and reasonable on this site. Try DailyTech, much more your style.
zepi - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
Apple uses only 28W TDP models of Intel chips in Macbook Pro 13" and as far as I understand, they are the only major manufacturer doing so.Intel doesn't have anything more powerful available. Without going for quad cores in rMBP13, they had no more powerful options available
More precisely Apple uses following SKU's in their "rMBP13 early 2015":
Core i5-5257U, Core i5-5287U and Core i7-5557U
https://support.apple.com/kb/SP715?locale=en_US
http://ark.intel.com/compare/84985,84988,84993
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8814/intel-releases-...
Get more informed, give credit when it is due and only "bash" when there are real reasons to do so.
Murloc - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
too underpowered for college kids as well.ASEdouardD - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
I'm annoyed by the fact that the Macbook Pros, with their retina displays, often feel slower in day to day use than freaking Macbook Airs, at 1.5-2x the cost.denem - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
Since Tim Cook took over as Apple CEO, revenue, earnings and market cap have more than doubled.. That is a pretty profitable "the deluge of mistakes" IMO. Meanwhile, Microsoft has gone backwards, along with the PC market. Apple has more total revenue and earnings than Microsoft and Google combined. No other US company comes close today, or yesterday. Not Exxon, not Microsft at its peak, no one. Mr. Cook must be doing something right.solipsism - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
If you think Apple's success is a "deluge of mistakes" I can't imagine what you would actually call a success. I, for one, would love to have a company that had a 1% of the success Cook has had in running Apple.maximumGPU - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
i think you missed his point.twotwotwo - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link
Going by http://images.apple.com/pr/pdf/q2fy15datasum.pdf, revenue of about $24.5b in Asia (Greater China + Japan + Rest of Asia Pacific). That is more than they sold in the Americas ($21.3b).Slicing another way, there's more revenue from Greater China ($16.8b) than from Macs ($5.6b) + iPads ($5.4b) + services (~$5b) worldwide.
solipsism - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
China, especially, is a growing market, but remember Apple's fiscal 2Q2105 is also a major quarter for China due to their new year.Calista - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
Those numbers are just insane. Apple is one of the largest economic entities in the world, their revenue is larger than the majority of countries. Heck, they have a combined revenue larger than the *combined* GDP of the *37* countries with the smallest GDP.ASEdouardD - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 - link
This is just crazy. Anyway, I prefer Apple as the top dog than than Microsoft, Samsung, Google, IBM, etc. Apple knows how make something that really looks good and feels good, which is more than what you could say for 99% of the rest of the bunch.Brakken - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
iPad sales reduced. However, 5.4b$ is not a small amount of money. I'm sure other companies would be happy to pull that in for any of their product categories...solipsism - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
It doesn't matter how much revenue and profit the iPad is pulling in, it's less than the iPhone so it means Apple is going under. Everyone should sell their stock and invest in Amazon.MichaelFanoe - Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - link
http://www.statista.com/statistics/269915/global-a...Says it all to the "decline" debate ?
Impressive sales of Ipads.