Apple Sees iPad Revenue Growth for the First Time in 10 Quarters

[Karma*Police]

Nice way of spinning those numbers. if i charge more for an banana of course i am gonna see "growth"

SMH... If it were that obvious and easy, everyone would just raise prices and see growth. Just ask Netflix how their price hike impacted them last quarter.

The price increase could just as easily have backfired on Apple, but clearly, enough people were impressed by the value of the iPad Pro to increase revenue.

 

[jgelin]

If they would open up the Pro line to its full potential and incentivize a little better for the developers to start to think about the future of this type iPad, being on par with most 'note/net/books', they would see bigger growth than this and move actual numbers of units too.

My Pro is sooooo close to being the laptop killer that so many consumers would use and yearn to own, bump it up and make it happen.

 

[Karma*Police]

Luckily as every good investor I diversify my investments. Will rethink holding on to the Apple stock in a few months though.

If you're truly an investor, you wouldn't worry about it in a few months; your horizon would be the next 5-10 years. By then, Apple will most likely be a much bigger company.

Besides, it's in the next few months that I expect the "smart money" to start adding AAPL to their positions to get ahead of next year's iPhone launch, which should be huge... the market usually looks ahead 6 months. Not to mention, there are few companies that are as safe as AAPL in today's lofty and uncertain market.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

We have learned how less can be more.

 

[44267547]

If they would open up the Pro line to its full potential and incentivize a little better for the developers to start to think about the future of this type iPad, being on par with most 'note/net/books', they would see bigger growth than this and move actual numbers of units too.

My Pro is sooooo close to being the laptop killer that so many consumers would use and yearn to own, bump it up and make it happen.

And this is what Tim Cook forsee' the future of the iPad being. Ultimately replacing your Laptop. It's doable, with the right measures.

 

[jgelin]

And this is what Tim Cook forsee' the future of the iPad being. Ultimately replacing your Laptop. It's doable, with the right measures.

I agree. It is why I went and bought one, and I am just loving it now and if it does get better software eventually that will make me love it even more.

 

[Altis]

I'd wager that a big part of the turnaround is the Pros with the Pencil.

Everyone forever saying that the iPad should never have a stylus were pretty nutty. It's brilliant, and absolutely renewed interest in the device and has to upgrade iPads to be able to use it and the smart keyboards.

Also, the larger size was needed, again against all the people saying that Apple should never make a larger iPad.

 

[MH01]

Would you prefer to sell 10 bananas at $1 each or 9 bananas at $1.20?

Because that's exactly what happened to the iPad.

And that is what we are saying, sales numbers down , but profit up due to increased price

To be honest 12 bananas at $0.90 and see customer growth.

Cause next year I have to increase prices to $1.40 selling 8 in a declining banana markert to tell everyone I'm making a profit....are you going to keep paying more for bananas so i can keep turning a profit year on year...
[doublepost=1469598797][/doublepost]

SMH... If it were that obvious and easy, everyone would just raise prices and see growth. Just ask Netflix how their price hike impacted them last quarter.

The price increase could just as easily have backfired on Apple, but clearly, enough people were impressed by the value of the iPad Pro to increase revenue.

No....... Sales numbers declined. People were not impressed to increase revenue, revenue increased cause the price went up , and less impressed people paid more....

As I stated, if you are bought in deep into the ecosystem, and wanted a new bigger ipad or iPad Air 3, you paid the "pro" tax. It's not really a choice , when your whole setup is based on apple , you don't just buy an android tablet .....

 

[FactVsOpinion]

Well my 12 inch iPad Pro with keyboard does rock!

 

[maflynn]

[MOD NOTE]
A number of posts were removed due to arguing. Please stay on topic.

 

[RedOrchestra]

My guess is the iPad Pro 12.9 outsells the 9.7 by a long shot. Seems to be the clear favorite, even though the 12.9 Pro has been available longer.

I doubt that very much - clearly the uptick in sales was caused by the release of the 9.7" iPP - the 12.9" is a languishing niche product that isn't going anywhere in the "daily use" market.

 

[2457282]

Apple is in transition. Everyone complains that there is not innovation in the iphone or ipad. But there is also not a lot of technology available left to stick in those form factors. What is wrong with the phone or tablet in three sizes. from a form factor perspective, they look great and really dont need to get thinner or change otherwise. So what's left.
- make it faster
- add more memory
- improve the camera
- add force touch
- 4k
- OLED vs LCD
- Pencil

These are all incremental and will mostly go un-noticed by the huge sections of the population. People that are into technology will geek out over this, but most are not geeks (I am and am proud of it). What I see most people worry about, is the price, the weight, the color, the bling. They do care about the camera and the apps, but most assume that these are the same across the board (I know they are not). I have heard more than one person when asked why not get an iphone say, "I am not that rich yet."

For me, Tim continues to talk about the ipad as a PC replacement or laptop replacement. If he really is headed there, the one thing that will help is to actually make the ipad, laptop functional. I still can't run multiple apps simultaneously. I still don't have a good file structure/organizer. Memory and CPU are almost there and I do believe it will be there in a year or so.

Otherwise, Apple really does need to look at new areas to penetrate. The ATV is great but developing a bit slow. The watch is the same. The Car? Who knows. The services - needs way more work (starting with replacing Cue).

Just my thoughts.

 

[SBlue1]

If you're truly an investor, you wouldn't worry about it in a few months; your horizon would be the next 5-10 years. By then, Apple will most likely be a much bigger company.

Besides, it's in the next few months that I expect the "smart money" to start adding AAPL to their positions to get ahead of next year's iPhone launch, which should be huge... the market usually looks ahead 6 months. Not to mention, there are few companies that are as safe as AAPL in today's lofty and uncertain market.

I have been holding AAPL for a few years as I look for long term benefits. I used to trade stocks in the dotcom bubble age weekly, it was like gambling. Burnt myself, lesson learnt. Now I keep selected stocks for 5, 10 or more years. I check and adjust if needed every 6 moths though if I see some trends. AAPL was a good ride in the last 10 years but I think we will see in a few months where Tims Apple is heading to.

 

[Karma*Police]

And that is what we are saying, sales numbers down , but profit up due to increased price

To be honest 12 bananas at $0.90 and see customer growth.

Cause next year I have to increase prices to $1.40 selling 8 in a declining banana markert to tell everyone I'm making a profit....are you going to keep paying more for bananas so i can keep turning a profit year on year...
[doublepost=1469598797][/doublepost]

No....... Sales numbers declined. People were not impressed to increase revenue, revenue increased cause the price went up , and less impressed people paid more....

As I stated, if you are bought in deep into the ecosystem, and wanted a new bigger ipad or iPad Air 3, you paid the "pro" tax. It's not really a choice , when your whole setup is based on apple , you don't just buy an android tablet .....

It's absolutely a choice. iPad Airs could be had for a lot less but many customers opted to go with the more expensive Pro model because it represented a better value in their eyes. And there were enough of them which led to the higher ASP and a YoY increase in revenue. If more people opted to buy the cheaper Air model (as my colleague had just done), both sales and revenue would have declined.

Now, if they priced the Pro model at $499, would that have spurred more sales? Absolutely. But would it have been enough to increase revenue and profit? We'll never know but clearly Apple crunched some numbers and didn't think so. Apple took an educated risk and it paid off, but it could just as easily have backfired.

 

[techwhiz]

They can have my money when they have an iPad Mini with Pencil support.
I like the mini form factor. I really want a pen/pencil. It's perfect notebook size.

 

[Karma*Police]

I have been holding AAPL for a few years as I look for long term benefits. I used to trade stocks in the dotcom bubble age weekly, it was like gambling. Burnt myself, lesson learnt. Now I keep selected stocks for 5, 10 or more years. I check and adjust if needed every 6 moths though if I see some trends. AAPL was a good ride in the last 10 years but I think we will see in a few months where Tims Apple is heading to.

Yeah same here. Made big bucks, lost big bucks during the dot com boom/bust.

I bought AAPL in the 90s, stupidly sold it a few years later and then bought back in and held on through all the ups and downs for over 15 years. That's worked out very well.

I follow my holdings every day but I don't sell unless there's very good reason to. While everyone has a different exit strategy, I look for potential disruptive forces that may severely handicap the company.

With Apple, I just don't see anything on the horizon that will disrupt their business the way iPhone impacted the likes of Nokia, RIMM and MS.

I think smartphones will be around for a long while and I expect the iPhone to remain a very big cash cow for Apple until the next big thing comes along... whatever that may be.

 

[SBlue1]

Yeah same here. Made big bucks, lost big bucks during the dot com boom/bust.

I bought AAPL in the 90s, stupidly sold it a few years later and then bought back in and held on through all the ups and downs for over 15 years. That's worked out very well.

I follow my holdings every day but I don't sell unless there's very good reason to. While everyone has a different exit strategy, I look for potential disruptive forces that may severely handicap the company.

With Apple, I just don't see anything on the horizon that will disrupt their business the way iPhone impacted the likes of Nokia, RIMM and MS.

I think smartphones will be around for a long while and I expect the iPhone to remain a very big cash cow for Apple until the next big thing comes along... whatever that may be.

This is why I am waiting to sell AAPL. It was great and I could see the overall vision that Steve had. I even thought that Tim had a vision. But after all the small things heading in the wrong direction I honestly don't know what Tim wants. There is this video of Steve saying "we just don't want to sell crap, we want to make stuff we are proud of and we can sell to our family" and tim is sitting next to him. I saw the video when Steve introduced the first iBook. He was sooooo proud of it. He was bragging how it was the fastest consumer laptop. How it had the best of the best internals. How they put state of the art hardware in it and so on.

Now look at Tims products. Spinning drives in 2016. 16 Gig base storage in iPhones and iPads. MacBooks with just one port. Soldered Ram and SSD. Why? Steve wanted to make the best products with the best parts available at that time. Tim just wants to make the thinnest products, no matter how it affects the internals. Or maybe its just Sir Jony who is obsessed with thin and Tim just can't say no? Who knows.

This is why as a shareholder I am giving Apple 6 to 12 months to impress me. Maybe a little more. I may be wrong and I may be biased because I love Apple and have been used Apple products for 20 years and I always could pick up something from their shelves. Now I look at the products and I think what the heck? Why this? Where is that?

 

[Karma*Police]

This is why I am waiting to sell AAPL. It was great and I could see the overall vision that Steve had. I even thought that Tim had a vision. But after all the small things heading in the wrong direction I honestly don't know what Tim wants. There is this video of Steve saying "we just don't want to sell crap, we want to make stuff we are proud of and we can sell to our family" and tim is sitting next to him. I saw the video when Steve introduced the first iBook. He was sooooo proud of it. He was bragging how it was the fastest consumer laptop. How it had the best of the best internals. How they put state of the art hardware in it and so on.

Now look at Tims products. Spinning drives in 2016. 16 Gig base storage in iPhones and iPads. MacBooks with just one port. Soldered Ram and SSD. Why? Steve wanted to make the best products with the best parts available at that time. Tim just wants to make the thinnest products, no matter how it affects the internals. Or maybe its just Sir Jony who is obsessed with thin and Tim just can't say no? Who knows.

This is why as a shareholder I am giving Apple 6 to 12 months to impress me. Maybe a little more. I may be wrong and I may be biased because I love Apple and have been used Apple products for 20 years and I always could pick up something from their shelves. Now I look at the products and I think what the heck? Why this? Where is that?

Steve was brilliant; he had an uncanny knack for knowing what consumers wanted and he was the consummate showman. Tim will never have that ability. But Apple was never a one man show and I'm not seeing anything in your rationale as valid reasons for worry...

Apple was always stingy with memory. The original MB Air also had one port but it was too far ahead of its time... MB is just fulfilling Steve's original vision of a lighter, more portable, completely silent, wireless computer. Steve bragged about having the thinnest smartphone, MP3 player and tablet so Apple's vision of thin and light mobile devices is nothing new.

Things are not as different as you seem to think they are since Steve's passing. Judging by their products alone, I'd say Apple's DNA is still very much intact. I said this a few times but it's worth saying over and over... nostalgia is a powerful drug... and a dangerous one if you let it color your vision as an investor.

 

[Wanted797]

Nice way of spinning those numbers. if i charge more for an banana of course i am gonna see "growth"

Sales is all about spinning numbers for shareholders. I work in sales and there are so many tricks in the book for doing things to make it "look" like you're selling more. At the ended of the day the managers up stairs just look at the piece of paper.

 

[kdarling]

So does this mean Apple will just put pro at the end of thier products and charge more, to compensate for declining numbers?

The iPad Pro and the iPhone 6 were examples of Cook continuing his short term strategy of copying Samsung product features which take away a significant portion of potential Apple sales. (Which I think is why we're hearing rumors of wrap around displays a la Samsung Edge.)

This strategy always works at first to boost Apple sales, but he knows he has to come up with something much more unique long term, something with more of an Apple twist. i.e. Something beautiful at the expense of practicality. Like perhaps making an all-display iPhone front and all glass case.

(It's just one prong of his use of tried and true strategies. He's also investing in opening new markets like India, and finding new ways to lock users into the iOS world.)

I think the 9.7 outsells the 12.9 since it is cheaper and the traditional size of an iPad. The 12.9" is bigger than some notebooks.

You are likely correct. In the earnings call, Cook said:

"We had our best iPad compare in 10 quarters, with revenue growing 7% thanks to the rollout of the 9.7-inch iPad Pro."