Apple Sells 12.3 Million iPads in Q4 2014, Sales Down for Third Quarter in a Row

[MacRumors]

Apple's iPad sales are down for the third straight quarter according to the company's earnings for its fourth fiscal quarter of 2014, selling a total of 12.3 iPads which is down from 14.1 million units in the year-ago quarter. The company has sold 68 million iPads in 2014 and has sold 237.5 million iPads total. The news comes after the company announced its new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 last week at its special media event.

Earlier this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook commented that the drop in iPad sales over the past two quarters was just a "speed bump" for Apple. In the company's third-quarter earnings call, Cook highlighted overall sales of more than 225 million iPads since the device launched in 2010 and suggested the tablet market as a whole was still "in its infancy." The CEO also stated at the time that "significant innovation could be brought to the iPad" ahead of this year's new iPad releases.

The new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 will go on sale this week, although the company focused primarily on the former at its event. The iPad Air features a faster A8X processor, a Touch ID fingerprint sensor, a profile that is just 6.1 mm thick, and a new gapless laminated display that produces sharper images. Meanwhile, the iPad Mini 3 includes a few changes aside from the Touch ID home button and a new gold color option.

Apple is also said to be preparing to launch a new 12.9-inch iPad Pro early next year, although some reports have claimed that mass production of the larger tablet has been put on hold to shift resources towards iPhone 6 plus production. The display of the larger tablet will reportedly near ultra high-definition quality and will likely ship with the faster A8X processor.

Article Link: Apple Sells 12.3 Million iPads in Q4 2014, Sales Down for Third Quarter in a Row

 

[Glassed Silver]

I'm sure the "new" iPad Mini will fix this easily

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[koulmj]

Well they're so expsensive and people can continue to use old ipads...i wonder how many ipad 2 and originals are still out there.

 

[elmateo487]

I wonder if the crippled mini was a way to combat this, and drive up iPad Air 2 sales.

 

[technopimp]

Surely this was expected though...it's a luxury item to some degree and one that's in many ways duplicating the functionality of other devices people likely already have. At some point, the vast majority of people who want a tablet will have bought one, but are likely to not see a significant reason to upgrade year over year.

 

[RebornProphet]

These are still phenomenal numbers for a device which is not ungraded annually, like the iPhone is.

While there are buyers who upgrade their ipad annually, it's far less than those who upgrade iPhones annually or even every two years.

Sales are down yes, but to be doing 12m in a QUARTER on a device many keep for two/three years is still good going.

 

[WilliamG]

I'm sure the "new" iPad Mini will fix this easily

Glassed Silver:mac

No kidding. And the iPhone 6 Plus has a lot of people holding off buying an iPad, anyway. I expect iPad sales to slump for the next quarter, too.

 

[hexor]

Maybe they need to cut their profit margins some. They are also making the product lineup extremely confusing by having so many old models listed now. That is the same mistake Apple started to make before Steve Jobs came back and had to clean house.

 

[aneftp]

The "upgrade" cycle for most "normal users" aka non macrumors people for iPads is probably close to 3 years.

That means most people are perfectly happy with their ipad 2 purchased between 2011/2012.

So many people won't even consider upgrading till close to 2015 at this rate.

iPad and other tablets are pretty much saturated at this point in the USA.

Phones tend to be upgraded every 2 years.

 

[341328]

Put in some STEREO sound... You know two speakers at either end. Hopefully iPad air 2 has more ram also.

 

[mdridwan47]

Still they treated the new mini so poorly.

 

[Nee412]

Maybe they need to cut their profit margins some. They are also making the product lineup extremely confusing by having so many old models listed now. That is the same mistake Apple started to make before Steve Jobs came back and had to clean house.

I agree. It should just be iPad Mini 3 and iPad Air 2. The older models are just adding confusion for customers. Potentially damaging profits for Apple as well, with the only really difference between the Mini 2 and the Mini 3 being Touch ID.

 

[Pakaku]

Put in some STEREO sound... You know two speakers at either end. Hopefully iPad air 2 has more ram also.

Tablet speakers suck. Invest in some nice, comfortable headphones.

 

[Glassed Silver]

Tablet speakers suck. Invest in some nice, comfortable headphones.

Pretty sure he's not talking about those serving as first choice speakers, but it's nice to have them when you need them.

e.g. playing some music in the kitchen whilst you're cooking, no need for high fidelity there, or when you just want to watch the occasional Youtube video together with a friend on the couch or something.

I use my iPad's speaker often enough to want stereo and most importantly: they should be placed somewhere that makes some actual sense.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[firestarter]

iPad development has been unimaginative over the past couple of iterations - and the platform is stagnating. The only meaningful change we've got is 'thinner'.

- What about improving the sound? Android and Windows tablets offer stereo for media viewing in the landscape view. iPad does not.

- Form factor - as a media consumption device the 4:3 screen is a poor choice, wasting a lot of screen real estate top and bottom of a TV program or movie

- Lockdown - expansion limitations preventing the use of external storage and camera memory cards across third party apps limits the iPad as a creative tool. I've switched to taking a MBA on trips because the iPad just doesn't work well in this space

- Screen and OS design - old, old, old and a poor use of space. Let me pack more icons on a screen and arrange them as I want, for goodness sake!

iPad functionality just isn't looking as attractive compared to lighter laptops with better battery capacity and more powerful phones with bigger screens. It needs to expand its functionality or be squeezed out.

 

[wlossw]

The only reason iPhones sell so well and are upgraded so often is carrier subsidies. IPad will never have a 1-2 year upgrade cycle until the perceived cost is closer to 200 than it is to 500. I think moving last years models aggressively lower in price has the potential to jump start iPad sales.

 

[Iconoclysm]

The "upgrade" cycle for most "normal users" aka non macrumors people for iPads is probably close to 3 years.

That means most people are perfectly happy with their ipad 2 purchased between 2011/2012.

So many people won't even consider upgrading till close to 2015 at this rate.

iPad and other tablets are pretty much saturated at this point in the USA.

Phones tend to be upgraded every 2 years.

I think you're spot on about the upgrade cycle. However, I think "saturated" is a stretch. The numbers really aren't that far down.

 

[scbn]

Stop calling it a 'speed bump', Tim! The iPad Air was a bad design. Apple needs to admit it. I don't think market saturation is the whole story here. I personally returned an iPad Air because it didn't feel right - too light and thin, and plastic-like; it does not feel like a premium product.

I haven't got a chance to look at the iPad Air 2, yet. But I doubt it will be selling much better.

 

[kas23]

I agree. It should just be iPad Mini 3 and iPad Air 2. The older models are just adding confusion for customers. Potentially damaging profits for Apple as well, with the only really difference between the Mini 2 and the Mini 3 being Touch ID.

They keep them in there because their profit margins are higher due to their dated components. People who buy those are actually making Apple a higher net profit than those purchasing their "new" products. They remove them when the costs of having multiple assembly lines running outstrip their profits.

 

[paysdoufs]

Still rocking my trusty iPad 2 since the new ones are so horrendously expensive. Only economically reasonable upgrade would be to a refurbished iPad Air (1).
@Apple: Only making them thinner w/o thinking about the OS is kind of intellectually lazy, IMHO. A stylus or multiple user accounts would be due at this point in time.

 

[OllyW]

The "upgrade" cycle for most "normal users" aka non macrumors people for iPads is probably close to 3 years.

I must be a "normal" MacRumors person because I'm waiting for my new iPad Air 2 to arrive as a replacement for my 3 year old iPad 2.

 

[SandboxGeneral]

I wonder if the lack of growth in sales has anything to do with the lack of significant upgrades to the Mini 3.

 

[bushido]

well it is incredible thinner now. i am sure this fixes all what was wrong with the iPad from a productive kind of view.

/s

i will rock my 3rd gen til it dies. nothing an iPhone doesnt do. iOS on the iPad is just laaaazy. my macbook pro is currently in repair and so i have to use the iPad a lot more than usual and it makes me realize how much it actually cant do properly. its like they know it sells well so why bother doing anything exciting with it

 

[Nozuka]

this is what happens when people actually have to pay full price for a device. the upgrade cycle is bound to be slower.

and still feels like "just" a bigger iphone. the bigger screen is not used to its full potential.

macbook air > ipad

 

[milo]

Tablet speakers suck.

But tons of other tablet speakers suck less than the iPad ones. On a phone stereo is debatable but it's not that big a deal to put them in a tablet, particularly on the far ends of landscape mode.