Apple Sees Falling iPad Sales in Fiscal 2022, But Mac Sales Up

[1rottenapple]

iPads brought in 7 billion dollars this quarter. It isn't going anywhere.

Exactly. Macrumors echo chamber clamoring for OS elements one 1% care about. iPad OS works for iPad users, aka mainstream people. It would be a nightmare for people like my friends who use iPad for their therapy private practice, or my mom or my dad or my friend grandma, if iPad OS becomes like a macOS. Want a macOS get an Mac.

When people want a tablet they buy an iPad bar none, it's the market leader. And guess what, iPads last a long time, they're great products and when it's time to upgrade due to failing screen or poor battery or unsupported OS, they'll buy another iPad.

My our 2 nearly 5 year old iPad pros are still going strong. No need to upgrade given I spent close to 2k for both of the 2018 Pros. But when it's time to upgrade I'm certainly buying another model. Same with my iPad mini 6th gen which is my main device. It's a great consumption device.

 

[1rottenapple]

I think Apple knows what they want it to be and they’re working towards that. I think there were people with Macs awhile that bought the iPad, maybe because of the Apple logo. But, as the iPad isn’t and likely won’t become a Mac, those Mac folks went back to the Mac. That’s not surprising at all.

Or maybe people who needed and iPad bought it and use it and hold on till it needs replacement. Then when they're older Macs needs to be replace they'll buy a Mac? you know the sane people who don't upgrade anytime there's a 3% increase in processor power.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Difficult to compare as the average selling price of an iPad is much lower. Suggests that the iPads that move in numbers are the low end models, the people buying those are not really the same people buying Macs.

Would be interested to see iPad Pro sales vs the entry level mac models (MBA, MBP 13)

A very WILD guess would say that, as they were selling twice as many units as the Mac at roughly the same revenue level, half the revenue level would be roughly similar unit sales to the Mac. I’m sure the analysts will give it a shot and, as they’ve been good with iPad numbers in the past, hopefully we won’t get numbers like the ones for the Mac spread across everywhere.

I’d guess that the MBA sells more than both the iPad Pro and the Mac Pro. And, that the iPad Pro sells more than the Mac Pro.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Or maybe people who needed and iPad bought it and use it and hold on till it needs replacement. Then when they're older Macs needs to be replace they'll buy a Mac? you know the sane people who don't upgrade anytime there's a 3% increase in processor power.

Generally speaking, people familiar with the Mac want macOS. There’s few people these days (industrywide) that don’t have macOS and want macOS. Most folks want any of the other OS’s available, including iPadOS.

 

[ackmondual]

Problem is and Apple refuses to acknowledge it: the iPad is a consumption device. The aspirational stuff that they show in their demos is very small niche of users. Most are using this to watch YouTube, movies, listen music and do casual web browsing. And, they last freaking long! Even when they stop getting updates, they still are useful. I still can't find a good reason to upgrade from my 2017 12.9.

I still have my iPad Air (1st gen, from 2013) around to play some games that never survived the 64-bit transition. On that same note, my 9th gen ipad is also pretty much a gaming device. That's it really

 

[LogicalApex]

Well that's no surprise. Macs are great now. If only iPad Pros had bootcsmp for macOS

Are the Apple Silicon MacBooks cannibalizing iPad sales? 🤣

I am sure they are.

 

[Mainsail]

When Jobs introduced the new MBA in 2010, he described it as what Apple imagined would happen if an iPad and Laptop hooked-up. Back then, the iPad still had an advantage in price, weight, and battery life. But, when you add the cost and weight of iPad accessories....most of these advantages dissipate.

• The new iPad 10 256GB ($600) + Magic Keyboard ($250) + Apple Pencil ($100) = $950
• The M1 MBA 256GB ($999) full retail, but you can buy them at big box stores for $799 or less
• recently, I purchased a base M2 MBA 256GB for $1,049 on sale at BB.

The M-series MBAs are just so good.....Fast, Fanless, 18 hours battery. I think they are tough to beat if you are looking for a reliable everyday computing solution for home, school, and office.

 

[iPadified]

Why is it always a competition between Macs and iPads especially from the Mac entrenched? Apple needs to adjust the prices of iPads. The value is now poorer than it used to be. I agree, there is currently a very strong Mac value - great!

 

[Alp3r]

iPad mini (small)
iPad (medium)
iPad Pro (medium & big)

The iPad Air (medium) should go and now it’s almost identical to iPad.

The iPad in the future should end up looking like the iPad Air with all of its features

 

[4tune8chance]

Apple saw a sharp decline in iPad sales in fiscal 2022, according to earnings results for the fourth quarter that were shared today. iPads brought in $29.2 billion in 2022, down from the $31.8 billion in sales Apple saw in 2021.

For most of 2022, iPads saw little attention and supplies were notably constrained. Apple refreshed the iPad Air in March, but did not introduce a new design, focusing primarily on the addition of an M1 chip.

No other iPads were refreshed during the fiscal 2022 year, and while the iPad Pro and iPad just received updates, those sales will be counted in the first quarter of fiscal 2023 due to the timing of the launch. Apple has said multiple times this year that it has faced supply issues with the iPad, which may have impacted sales.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, iPads brought in $7.17 billion in revenue, down from $8.25 billion in the year-ago quarter. The year over year comparison is difficult as Apple introduced new iPads during the fourth quarter last year.

While iPad sales faltered in fiscal 2022, Mac sales were up even though there have been a limited number of refreshes. Apple revamped the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro models in June, but we are still waiting on refreshes of other models like the Mac mini and the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro.

Apple also saw supply constraints with Macs throughout the course of the year, but interest in the M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra, and M2 chips has resulted in steady sales. Mac revenue was at $11.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, up $2.5 billion year over year. In fiscal 2022, Macs earned a total of $40.1 billion, up $5 billion from the $35 billion that Macs earned in fiscal 2021. The Mac is attracting new customers, and in Q4 2022, half of Mac buyers were new to the product line.

During today's earnings call, Apple CFO Luca Maestri said that Mac revenue will decline substantially in the holiday quarter on a year over year basis due to the Mac launches that came last year.

Article Link: Apple Sees Falling iPad Sales in Fiscal 2022, But Mac Sales Up

A victim of their own success I suppose. I don’t feel the need to update if you’re just using it to browse.

 

[evertjr]

They can boost mac revenue even more if they bring more AAA games to macOS

 

[Mainsail]

Why is it always a competition between Macs and iPads especially from the Mac entrenched? Apple needs to adjust the prices of iPads. The value is now poorer than it used to be. I agree, there is currently a very strong Mac value - great!

Well, this is a thread about iPad and Mac sales, and there is some competition between the products in making buying decisions. Certainly, some people elect to have both an iPad and Mac. Others, just a Mac. Others, an iPad only. Or, it might be that a consumer is considering upgrading and the upgrade for one product might just be more compelling than the latest offering of the other product. For example, when Apple put the M1 chip in the iPad Air 5, I did not find it very compelling because my iPad Air 4 was already limited by iPadOS....more processing power didn't do much for me. But, the M1/M2 chips in the MBA made a pretty big difference in performance, battery life, and fan-less operation. Also, there were a few features in MacOS that only worked with the M-series chips. So, yeah, I decided to spend my money on the more worthy upgrade for my needs, and the two products were kind of competing for my $$.

I should mention that recently I gave my iPad Air to my son to use for note taking in grad school, and I am getting by just fine with my MBA only. So, it turns out I really did not have a big need for an iPad. I think they are great devices, but it is not essential for my purposes. YMMV.

 

[svish]

People keep iPads for a long time. Not replaced very often. The next iPad Pro, if it has OLED display, might be able to boost overall iPad sales.

 

[x86dude]

Macs are the most exciting products in Apple’s business now due to Apple Silicon. It’s the one place where performance gains in chips actually matter.

A lot more room to grow too. Macs only own 10% of worldwide PC sales.

PS. I can't wait for the Mac Pro SoC. I'm not going to buy it because it's not for me but it's exciting to see extreme chip tech.

100% right.

The iPhone and iPad market is saturated, but people are crying out for the right Mac desktop.
Apple silicon gives Apple the chance to grab that market.

Give us a machine to wipe the smirk off our PC friends.
A Mac Pro with an affordable entry level config, less CPU, more GPU cores, that can be upgraded.
Even if the upgrade is 90% of the internals, it still makes an expensive system more affordable and gains a much bigger market share.

One gets the feeling that no one at Apple is passionate about this and every manager is going through the motions of managing their department, meeting budget, and taking leave.

 

[exoticSpice]

Why is it always a competition between Macs and iPads especially from the Mac entrenched? Apple needs to adjust the prices of iPads. The value is now poorer than it used to be. I agree, there is currently a very strong Mac value - great!

Because why not? The only major difference is touch/pencil support and if you don't that or cellular then Macs are great.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Are the Apple Silicon MacBooks cannibalizing iPad sales? 🤣

I am sure they are.

It appears that they are still constrained in making them. Seeing that most iPads sold are well below the cost of the cheapest Mac, folks will just have to wait to get their iPads.

 

[SenorWhyMe]

can we finally have a dual os iPad Pro already, I want a Ipad/Macbook already. once the iPad is removed from a keyboard and mouse it becomes a regular iPad and once you plug it in to a keyboard/mouse or a Magic Keyboard you get Mac OS , I would 100% pay for more storage for this option already. and would be nice if you connect this iPad/MacBook to a external monitor to have Mac OS on the external monitor and iPadOs on the iPad screen

 

[iPadified]

Well, this is a thread about iPad and Mac sales, and there is some competition between the products in making buying decisions. Certainly, some people elect to have both an iPad and Mac. Others, just a Mac. Others, an iPad only. Or, it might be that a consumer is considering upgrading and the upgrade for one product might just be more compelling than the latest offering of the other product. For example, when Apple put the M1 chip in the iPad Air 5, I did not find it very compelling because my iPad Air 4 was already limited by iPadOS....more processing power didn't do much for me. But, the M1/M2 chips in the MBA made a pretty big difference in performance, battery life, and fan-less operation. Also, there were a few features in MacOS that only worked with the M-series chips. So, yeah, I decided to spend my money on the more worthy upgrade for my needs, and the two products were kind of competing for my $$.

I should mention that recently I gave my iPad Air to my son to use for note taking in grad school, and I am getting by just fine with my MBA only. So, it turns out I really did not have a big need for an iPad. I think they are great devices, but it is not essential for my purposes. YMMV.

Because why not? The only major difference is touch/pencil support and if you don't that or cellular then Macs are great.

It is two different products with some usage overlap so in that sense I understand the competition. It is so clear that many Mac users (at MR, mind you) want the iPad to be a Mac or at least bootable with MacOS. That I also understand, because iPads are rather slick hardware. However, many Mac users seem to take personal offence of the very existence of iPads or rather iPadOS and that I do not understand. Look at threads: iPadOS is limited or even crap. Is it really for the intended usage pattern? I think not. Can iPadOS replace MacOS - definitely not, but that was never the intention either nor is it desirable.

 

[Dreamail]

I wonder if Apple even realizes how messy their iPad line really is...

The low end iPad is too limited in too many ways (slow USB-C, weird Apple Pencil setup, to name just two) and overall too expensive for all the weird limitations it has. All the while it is still no decent competitor against Chromebooks for schools.

The high end has a processor and overall hardware which is about twice if not three times too powerful for its OS (iPadOS).
This kind of hardware only makes sense if it ran macOS. Otherwise why bother? My 2TB 11" iPad Pro with M1 was the biggest disappointment in any Apple product I have ever purchased. Never ever going to purchase another iPad Pro - not while iPadOS is so limiting. A colossal waste of money.

And in the middle the iPad Air would be a really decent iPad - if it came with a 512GB and 1TB storage option. But I bet it is deliberately limited to 256GB max in order to upsell users who need more storage to an iPad Pro - even if they do not need any other feature of the more powerful Pro hardware.
So even the iPad Air is a messy setup.

And if Apple would sell a 12" MacBook with M1 processor, it would probably kill the iPad Pro line for good.
That's probably the only reason why such a product does not exist.

WTF Apple?!?

 

[caner0]

After my 2nd iPad, I give up on using iPad as a creative device. I came into conclusion that iPad is a consumption device, and even 2015 Macbook Air 11, or 2016 Macbook 12 delivers more capability on doing real work with the device. It just feels wrong, that's it.

 

[Ludajim]

That is a good question. I think M1P/M are selling well and they don't need to rush a new product now. Also they may be waiting for the 3nm process prices to go down or they risk increasing the prices too much or giving too few differences to M2 versus M1. I am on the fence, my wife needs a better computer and my M1 Air is enough for her. I also find the 13" screen too small and being eyeing a 16 for some time. But it will be a bummer if I pull the trigger and 1 month down the road (or less) new hardware comes out with similar price.

However, as I am in Europe, prices are going up even on not new hardware (iPad Air and mini for instance) and maybe I get a better deal buying now.

Decisions, decisions...

Thanks makes a lot of sense. Apple has avoided updating specific products like the Mac Pro on a yearly basis. When I saw all the discounts on the 14” and 16” a couple weeks back, everyone seems sure that they were clearing out stock for new MBP’s to arrive. But alas, here we are with the prices back to normal. I too, have been deciding whether to buy the 16”. Especially for such an expensive machine, it would definitely be a bummer if it updated a few months after buying one—even if it were simply a slight spec update. Sometimes I realize that when I’m an old man, waiting to leave this life, I’ll be able to remember my life based on Apple product cycles lol.

 

[entropys]

Can’t believe people only see an iPad as a consumption device. I have a TV for that.
I do everything on an iPad. Editing word docs, photos, research, conducting surveys, signing documents, issuing approvals, GIS, emails, etc etc etc.

But I don’t use an external keyboard either. If I wanted an external keyboard, I would get an MBA.

 

[Dreamail]

I do everything on an iPad. Editing word docs, photos, research, conducting surveys, signing documents, issuing approvals, GIS, emails, etc etc etc.

But I don’t use an external keyboard either. If I wanted an external keyboard, I would get an MBA.

That's great to hear the iPad works for you.

For me not so much.

The iPadOS Zoom app has half the features than the desktop version and in many of my company meetings I get stuck being unable to do the things they expect I can do.
Google Meet on the other hand often drops the sound, or slows the sound down so that other people sound like Wookiees. Only option to fix this is a reboot of the iPad Pro - and I miss 3 minutes of my meeting.
I have no say in what meeting software my company uses, I cannot force them to use FaceTime (they won't). So I have to make do with what I am dealt with and the iPad Pro is a terrible experience compared to my MacBooks, where these things "just work".

In my iTunes music library I added a lot of text to the Comments field, which helps me search for albums or songs. Apple Music on the iPad to this day does not sync Comments - finding my albums is terribly inconvenient on my iPad Pro.
Also Apple Music on iPadOS does not support substring searches. For example searching for "oss" does not find "Fossora" only "Foss" will do. Not so on iTunes. Searching "oss" easily finds "Fossora". Substring search is really helpful if you are not 100% sure how a foreign song name or artist name is spelled, but you remember parts of it.

When people send me a ridiculously large attachment via email, which clogs up my iCloud storage space, it's very easy to delete just the attachment on macOS - while not easily possible on iPadOS. The easiest solution on iPads: spend more money on iCloud storage. 😅 Maybe that's deliberate...


These are just some examples of issues I run into nearly on a daily basis.
The OS and most apps on my iPad Pro, even Apple's own apps, are lacking functionality which I take for granted on my MacBooks.
As a result it is just painful to use my iPad Pro as my main device. I really can't.

None of the above are difficult tasks IMHO. Just stuff I use and do daily on my MacBooks.
Yet the iPad seemingly is no real computer when it comes to even these simple tasks.

 

[wanha]

The iPad hardware has been good enough for a long time now, and the durability of iPads is excellent.

The true bottleneck is iPadOS.

It's still just not good or enjoyable for use for most workflows.

For consumption and drawing, it's great, but that's about it.

 

[4odomi]

Apple saw a sharp decline in iPad sales in fiscal 2022, according to earnings results for the fourth quarter that were shared today. iPads brought in $29.2 billion in 2022, down from the $31.8 billion in sales Apple saw in 2021.

For most of 2022, iPads saw little attention and supplies were notably constrained. Apple refreshed the iPad Air in March, but did not introduce a new design, focusing primarily on the addition of an M1 chip.

No other iPads were refreshed during the fiscal 2022 year, and while the iPad Pro and iPad just received updates, those sales will be counted in the first quarter of fiscal 2023 due to the timing of the launch. Apple has said multiple times this year that it has faced supply issues with the iPad, which may have impacted sales.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, iPads brought in $7.17 billion in revenue, down from $8.25 billion in the year-ago quarter. The year over year comparison is difficult as Apple introduced new iPads during the fourth quarter last year.

While iPad sales faltered in fiscal 2022, Mac sales were up even though there have been a limited number of refreshes. Apple revamped the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro models in June, but we are still waiting on refreshes of other models like the Mac mini and the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro.

Apple also saw supply constraints with Macs throughout the course of the year, but interest in the M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra, and M2 chips has resulted in steady sales. Mac revenue was at $11.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, up $2.5 billion year over year. In fiscal 2022, Macs earned a total of $40.1 billion, up $5 billion from the $35 billion that Macs earned in fiscal 2021. The Mac is attracting new customers, and in Q4 2022, half of Mac buyers were new to the product line.

During today's earnings call, Apple CFO Luca Maestri said that Mac revenue will decline substantially in the holiday quarter on a year over year basis due to the Mac launches that came last year.

Article Link: Apple Sees Falling iPad Sales in Fiscal 2022, But Mac Sales Up

No point to the iPad any longer, unless you use the pencil and to be honest the upgrades over the last 2 years have been under whelming, across the board and Apple will pay a price for that in sales for sure