Apple CEO Tim Cook: Drop in iPad Sales Just a 'Speed Bump'

[Rogifan]

Do you think that Apple will release a product with Surface 3 specs that will be cheaper?

I think Tim Cook has been pretty clear about Apple's stance on these "convergence" type devices. I think continuity and handoff are the future along with the split screen app features Apple is rumored to be working on. I would bet on a thin, fanless MacBook Air before Apple would turn the iPad into a laptop. And honestly that's what the Surface Pro is. Microsoft rarely, if ever shows it being used in portrait orientation or without the keyboard and kickstand.

 

[MyMacintosh]

The problem isn't the hardware, it is the software. iOS cannot be all things to all people. Software that is dumbed down to save on battery and so that grandma doesn't get confused cannot serve enterprise users effectively at the same time.

not to be that guy...but this statement is ageist. Ageism?

 

[NotTellinYou]

I love the iPad. However, against popular belief that suggests the next iPad (Air) will come with just A8, better graphics and TouchID, I would like to see something more. I don't want a revolution, an evolution will do just as fine, but not just a routine "twice as better" update.

Ok...so what would do that?

A product like the iPad, hardware wise, where do you go?

Faster
Smaller
Better performance
Better battery life

Ideas?

 

[Rogifan]

I agree that a tablet is just a supplemental device; I don't want a an "all in one tablet PC." However, there are places where the iPad can improve. I'd love split multitasking, but even ignoring that. Basic iOS functions like the app switcher can be greatly enhanced.

For sure there are improvements needed for iPad. They can start with more RAM and improving Safari which is garbage on iPad.

 

[MyMacintosh]

This! I have the redhead child iPad (3rd gen) and honestly, give or take a couple of small occasional annoyances, found no reason to upgrade, regardless how tempting it was to buy a brand new Air for $400

And I use my iPad everyday

same here. My iPad 3rd gen definitely lags on iOS 7, but still see no real reason to upgrade. thought about it for a day or two, but I'm the occasional browsing guy.

 

[Glassed Silver]

Will buy one for every creative professional in this organization.

...Apple can keep trying to dance around it, but a tablet really needs a wacom digitizer if it's going to be the creative tool that replace the traditional stand-in of pencils and scraps of paper floating all over the place.

A hundred years from now on into the future, you'll be able to accurately draw, sketch, and write on your tablet. Apple should buy Wacom and honor the licenses now while they can. They should have done it a decade ago.

Agreed until the "buy Wacom" part.

Keep it separate and hence: cross-platform.

I have no interest in Wacom becoming a platform-exclusive even though I have no plans to leave either iOS or OS X.

I like having options, that's all.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[0098386]

Apple has sold 225M iPads in just 4 years. It's a roughly $6B/quarter business. And yet some in the media are treating the iPad as if it's on life support. Ridiculous.

Eh, it happens a lot. In my market (gaming) for the last 10, 20 years people have been saying Nintendo is dying etc, and then they go and make the best selling consoles and have the most valuable gaming IPs.

You learn to ignore the nutter haters, but never block out the rational ones. Sometimes these companies mess up after all.

 

[Piggie]

Ok...so what would do that?

A product like the iPad, hardware wise, where do you go?

Faster
Smaller
Better performance
Better battery life

Ideas?

Larger, to make it actually usable for proper productivity apps, not having to get the laptop out to do something serious.

And vastly, and I mean VASTLY more powerful.

Both I hope will come in time.

I could also say a proper operating system and file system, but who know on that front.

 

[PracticalMac]

with Apple CEO Tim Cook commenting on the recent state of the tablet market, which has been on the decline. According to Cook, the dip in iPad sales over the past two quarters is just a "speed bump" for Apple.

LMAO!

So many CEO's made that same comment, just before their companies sales plummet!

This has happened, many, many, many times before.



I get Tim is working hard to do something about it, get sales up, though.

 

[Nothingfaced]

I kinda feel the need to defend Apple here.

I bought a 64GB WiFi original iPad in 2010; kept it 2 years and gave it away as a wedding gift because the 2 was such a powerful upgrade.

For the hell of it, I played with my brother's iPad 1 (still has his obviously), and I was amazed at how slow it was, even just running iOS5. It's obsolete, unless you simply use the iPad for surfing and listening to music.

Got an iPad 2 in 2011; I gave my iPad 2 to my son last spring when I got an Ipad Air for Christmas because it was such a powerful upgrade.

People saying the iPad 2 running iOS7 compares to the Air are being intellectually dishonest. It was sluggish and buggy running the new OS.

My Air is the last iPad I plan on having for many many years to come, however - I can't imagine any major upgrades to later models that would justify me selling this one and getting a new upgrade.

I imagine the iPad Air will run iOS9 or iOS10, and then will be discontinued, and I'm cool with that.

 

[Parasprite]

MacRumors is making it seem like the 12.9" iPad is certain and that Tim Cook's comments confirm it. Tim Cook did not elude to anything of that nature.

Yeah, it would be nice if they were to include a "may" in there somewhere.

 

[69Mustang]

Only in your experience. Ask a pilot if tablets haven't become more than just a nice and convenient thing for them. I think they'd tell you to a man and woman that going back to the old way is unthinkable. That's just the thing about (dare I use the cliche) "disruptive" products -- they create needs that nobody knew they had. The potential for tablets to continue to disrupt other markets has hardly hit its limits. In fact this is what Mossberg is saying his piece. (Not that anyone reads source articles on MR, but once again they buried the lead.)

Oh, and I notice that hardly everyone seems to need a smartphone.

You seem to be taking umbrage with the poster's assertions when, in my opinion, there's credibility in what he says. Especially, in his reply to you. He further clarified his original meaning making it clear he was referencing the majority of iPad users:

"Don't get me wrong, iPads are nice and convenient devices to have. I have one myself. But the majority could get by without one without it causing too much disruption to our daily lives. Now try getting by in day to day life without a phone. That's the level of difference of necessity that I was getting at." - excerpt from CEmajr

I think that is a fair assessment. For most, an iPad would be deemed less a necessity than an iPhone or any smartphone for that matter. Your rejoinder about airline pilots strays far from the majority and runs headlong into niche and some serious specificity. There are outliers in any scenario. Pilots are such outliers. Even at that, plenty of pilots can fly with no iPad.

 

[bushido]

this image pretty much sums up the problem with the iPad and its current iOS optimization

utterly redic

 

[Trapezoid]

You're right. You don't like the idea of the feature so nobody should have it. Because there is simply no way you could just not use multitasking in iOS.

Did he say any of that?

 

[IJ Reilly]

You seem to be taking umbrage with the poster's assertions when, in my opinion, there's credibility in what he says. Especially, in his reply to you. He further clarified his original meaning making it clear he was referencing the majority of iPad users:

"Don't get me wrong, iPads are nice and convenient devices to have. I have one myself. But the majority could get by without one without it causing too much disruption to our daily lives. Now try getting by in day to day life without a phone. That's the level of difference of necessity that I was getting at." - excerpt from CEmajr

I think that is a fair assessment. For most, an iPad would be deemed less a necessity than an iPhone or any smartphone for that matter. Your rejoinder about airline pilots strays far from the majority and runs headlong into niche and some serious specificity. There are outliers in any scenario. Pilots are such outliers. Even at that, plenty of pilots can fly with no iPad.

I don't take umbrage, I just don't agree. What the "majority" can get along without is hardly relevant to what I am saying. In fact I was not talking only about airline pilots but anyone who flies. Whether this particular market is huge or not totally misses the point. The point being, fours years ago nobody used a tablet in aviation. Now everybody does. The significance of this almost instantaneous total market penetration is not lost on me. It isn't lost on Walt Mossberg. And, thankfully, it isn't missed by Tim Cook.

 

[ColdShadow]

A larger iPad will only appeal to niche market.it won't be a game changer as majority of consumers do not want/need it.
In fact majority of consumers were excited when they announced the iPad Mini..

What they need to improve on iPad is the OS.
There are too many things iPads cannot do,and people want more expended functionality.

iPads are expensive,I like my iPad air but I can't stop thinking it's just a luxury device for casually browse web sites and watch youtube.
also it crashes a lot,they need to make iOS MUCH better,it might be fine as phone operating system but as a tablet OS,it's so limited.

real multi tasking,and widgets are some necessary functions that in my opinion iPad needs if it wants to be something more than a lazy web browser/youtube player.

 

[doelcm82]

I see no point in a bigger iPad.

Then Apple doesn't see you as the target audience for it.

 

[krewger]

Dear Apple,

I purchased a iPad Air 128gb and promptly returned it, anytime the screen shifted just a few degrees the white balance changed shades. It was extremely obnoxious for reading texts and almost had a glittery shimmer to it, so before you try to make a thinner iPad, put a quality screen in it and not just a thinner screen. I did however pick up a macbook pro 13" retina and love the screen quality. And in the end, the MBPR 13" is far more useful than an iPad ever will and drawing with it is a pleasure using my wacom tablet. The iPad is a novelty still to me, I can't use it for work effectively and creatively I don't find it is the best tool to jump on when there are so many more effective tools available on a desktop. There just isn't a way for me to justify a 900 dollar photo viewer that i can play angry birds on. Quit doing yearly hardware updates and make it do something new and amazing such as a digitizer with say 1024 levels for drawing properly and enforce new design standards that make use of tablets better, starting with your own obnoxious app icons forced to the top of the screen, allow the consumer to place the icon where they want. I feel the same way when I fly; domestic airlines forget that their plane cabins are suppose to accommodate humans, not numbers. Apple needs to start designing again for humans, not strictly yearly upgrade sales numbers.

 

[AppleScruff1]

I think Tim Cook has been pretty clear about Apple's stance on these "convergence" type devices. I think continuity and handoff are the future along with the split screen app features Apple is rumored to be working on. I would bet on a thin, fanless MacBook Air before Apple would turn the iPad into a laptop. And honestly that's what the Surface Pro is. Microsoft rarely, if ever shows it being used in portrait orientation or without the keyboard and kickstand.

I still think that there is a decent market for people who want to have one device. It's just a case of it being refined enough, etc. Broadwell and beyond, no fan, lower power consumption, thinner, lighter.......why not?

 

[Traverse]

For sure there are improvements needed for iPad. They can start with more RAM and improving Safari which is garbage on iPad.

That must be something with the 64-bit OS because I can still fit 6 to 8 tabs on my iPad 3.

 

[cdmoore74]

I really want to see how they plan to innovate on the ipad. cause other then spec bumps I can't think of any cool must have new feature.

That's the problem. What else can you really do to the ipad to make it sale like hotcakes? Even if you make the cpu 10x faster, double the dpi, add more memory, give it a fingerprint scanner or make it larger the core experience is no different from the very first iPad. You may not even see a difference with your apps. The satisfaction rate of these tablets is a blessing and a curse; people are happy with what they already have. From the iPad 2 to current all will be upgraded to iOS 8. It's the same reason why I'm not upgrading my wife's iPhone 5; it's getting iOS 8 as well.
At first I was going to say just drop the asking price but thats only a temporary solution. It's time for Apple to create something original. The iPad is old in the tooth. Same will happen with the iPhone but luckily for Apple they got a few size updates ans S models for the next 4 years.

 

[Traverse]

this image pretty much sums up the problem with the iPad and its current iOS optimization

utterly redic

I agree. I also hate the zoom in/out animation. I wish they would have kept the folder opening from iOS 6 and just updated it with transparency like in mavericks. And now Yosemite has that animation that too.... *Sigh*

 

[AppleScruff1]

That must be something with the 64-bit OS because I can still fit 6 to 8 tabs on my iPad 3.

I can fit that many on my Air too, but they reload when you switch.

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

Yeah, it would be nice if they were to include a "may" in there somewhere.

Since my post, they have edited in a "may".

 

[RickInHouston]

My precious love child? Um, don't think so.

Dude, you even have a Steve Jobs quote in your signature. Think it through.