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Apple Sold Fewer iPads Year Over Year for 13th Straight Quarter as Tablet Market Shrinks to Five-Year Low

I would put the iPad sales decline solely down to under-powered Macs in direct correlation to hardware cost. The iOS App ecosystem has not really moved on in the last 3/4 years, people don't have powerful Macs (without spending probably 4 times what they used to spend) to work on to deliver feature rich and powerful apps. The little developer hasn't moved on and the big boys haven't been pushed so will never develop further than the minimum.

The iPad hardware is absolutely excellent, Apple need to give developers reason to give us the software. Apple should be part funding iPad Pro specific professional apps, even if they invested only what they got in above say $100 million (That is peanuts to Apple), they'd win playing the long game.

Apple also need to speak to game developers, get them on board with the latest hardware, everyone is working on apps the iPad 4 can play - they need to take advantage of 'newer' hardware, iPads from the Air 2 onwards and even just iPad Pro, they could and should be gaming powerhouses.
 
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Like some people already said, there's just no need to buy a new tablet any more than 3-4 years at a time. My kids' 1st gen iPad mini's are juuuuuuust now starting to slow down and have stuttering/freezing problems. They were already old refurbs when we bought them three years ago. My fiance's iPad air is still running like butter and somehow T Mobile has been giving me unlimited data even though I only have the free 250Mb plan on it. Don't want to mess with that setup at all.

I'm considering buying a pro for myself just to have one again and get apple pencil support. But tablets are almost like MacBooks where they just last an ungodly long amount of time (We're still cleanly running a now 8 year old MacBook)
 
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azentropy said:
Not really if it is true. We don't know the install base and use rate for iPads. If those continue to grow then that would show "People don't upgrade tablets like the used to". However if they are finding that people who bought iPad's 3+ years ago just aren't using them (and aren't replacing them), then that is a problem.
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But we're on year 3 now of this excuse. At some point wouldn't sales start to flatten out to where YOY sales comparisons would be flat not declining. A year from now are we still going to be looking for the bottom with iPad sales?
 
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69Mustang said:
Got 5 tablets in my household. 2 iPads, Galaxy Tab 7, N7, and a Kindle. Only the Kindle (wife) gets actual use. Large screen phones have pretty much shot a close range, low velocity 22 caliber round behind the ear of tablets... at least in my household. They've always been consumption devices for us so the use case doesn't exist anymore. I can't envision a reason for a tablet purchase to hit my CC ever again.
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Wow! What an interesting metaphor on the demise of your household tablets. You must be a gun aficionado.
 
I am still using and loving my mini 2. I would only upgrade if it dies or I was gifted something newer. Mostly casual use but I use it for pro music apps also.
 
I love my iPad but I've always found them too expensive for what they do. I do not upgrade them every year and when I do upgrade, it's a Black Friday special.
 
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mi7chy said:
Reasons why iPads are dying:

#1 Pocketable phablets with 5.8" and 6.2" displays

#2 iOS is too dumbed down as a PC replacement

#3 Overpriced for what little you get compared to laptops and hybrids running a full OS
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#4 They have lost the US education market to Chromebooks despite the very very late in the game attempt to claw it back with the lower cost iPad.
 
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I have an iPad 4... pretty useless still, no actual applications for it. It is a toy. It is a device for leisure. The market is flooded with iPads. The best Apple could do it develop iOS that are not compatible with older generation or come with "bugs" so people buy new ones thinking theirs are damaged as Apple is doing with older iPhones.
 
Abazigal said:
I believe the chief reason is that Apple practically created the modern tablet market. In the beginning, everyone who wanted a tablet would get one from Apple, hence the exponential growth. Now, everyone who wants one has one, so we are gradually moving towards a PC-like replacement cycle, where the majority of users upgrade their iPads only every 4-5 years.

Let's look at it this way. Fewer people are buying the iPad mini, but revenue for the 9.7" and 12.9" iPads actually grew. This means that Apple will likely look to eventually phasing out the iPad mini. Once this is done, the larger iPads will be key to growth in the iPad market once again. Makes sense that Apple is pushing the larger iPads so aggressively in their latest advertisements.

The iPad is down but not out, and news of its demise are way exaggerated.
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Fewer people are buying the mini largely because Apple has basically ignored it since 2015. I have been waiting for an update for the last year and a half but held off because i didn't want to buy a 2 year old model (Getting to be an issue with Apple as the MacBooks updates haven't been super compelling either). At least upgrade the processor so the model I buy today goes end-of-OS-support at the same time as the current Pro line - buying a mini with an A8 means I would likely buying a device with a significantly shorter lifespan as to iOS updates.

I think apple is missing the boat with the mini as they place their entire focus on the power users trying to replace a laptop with larger Pro models. The mini is a great size for a number of people. Whenever I hand mine over to someone to use, they often ask what model it is and note how it is a great size for reading. I find this particularly true for Baby Boomers - especially women. They like the size and weight* compared to the larger ones. The Mini is just proper "book-sized" and closer to the Kindle's and other e-readers that don't do as much than the larger models are. As the population ages, having a model that is lighter and easier for seniors to hold could be a huge benefit. My parents likely won't ever buy another laptop but will keep buying ipads.

Reading on a phone isn't the same as reading on an mini. I can read much longer on an my iPad mini than I can on my 7+.

* Weight is quite subjective as the perception of it is often relative and cases often affect what one perceives.
 
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I believe the tablet market is shrinking because frankly devices last a lot longer and the pace of technology has slowed. Chips can only get small enough, battery capacity high enough and screens only sharp enough. There is less and less incentive to update frequently. I have two iPads. Both are over two years old and both run great. No need to upgrade. I'll bet the total installed base is going higher. It's anecdotal evidence of course - something I've noticed.

Plus, there seems to be an increased competition from two-in-one devices such as the Surface Pro 4 and others. I thought about upgrading to the iPad Pro, but the functionality (a full computer running i5 processor and full office suite) of the Surface won me over and while everyone ridicules the use of the Surface as a tablet, I do it all the time. I love the kick stand and the size. It's a little heavy but not a big deal.
 
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I love ipads, had ipad 1, 2, 3, Air and Air 2. I didn't buy Pro because I didn't need the pen and Air 2 was pretty fast already, but I m sure going to buy the Pro 2 if they ever decide to release it. Never thought it d take this long though :(
 
The technology for the iPad has progressed, but the OS has not, and prices have gone up. My iPad Pro 12.9" is probably the best Apple product I have bought in years in terms of fit, finish, technological power and performance. I love it. However it doesn't do much more than $300 iPads and mine cost $1,300 or so.
 
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mcrawley said:
Fewer people are buying the mini largely because Apple has basically ignored it since 2015. I have been waiting for an update for the last year and a half but held off because i didn't want to buy a 2 year old model (Getting to be an issue with Apple as the MacBooks updates haven't been super compelling either). At least upgrade the processor so the model I buy today goes end-of-OS-support at the same time as the current Pro line - buying a mini with an A8 means I would likely buying a device with a significantly shorter lifespan as to iOS updates.

I think apple is missing the boat with the mini as they place their entire focus on the power users trying to replace a laptop with larger Pro models. The mini is a great size for a number of people. Whenever I hand mine over to someone to use, they often ask what model it is and note how it is a great size for reading. I find this particularly true for Baby Boomers - especially women. They like the size and weight* compared to the larger ones. The Mini is just proper "book-sized" and closer to the Kindle's and other e-readers that don't do as much than the larger models are. As the population ages, having a model that is lighter and easier for seniors to hold could be a huge benefit. My parents likely won't ever buy another laptop but will keep buying ipads.

Reading on a phone isn't the same as reading on an mini. I can read much longer on an my iPad mini than I can on my 7+.

* Weight is quite subjective as the perception of it is often relative and cases often affect what one perceives.
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I suspect Apple isn't very keen on updating the iPad mini for a variety of reasons. For one, it might dissuade people from getting an iPhone plus (which is their key revenue driver), plus the opportunity cost is that you don't buy a larger iPad which brings in more revenue (and thus profits) for Apple.

At the same time, people who bought the larger iPhone are likely less inclined to get an iPad mini as well, and I don't think Apple is keen to pay too much attention to a product with limited sales prospects.

I don't deny there is a segment of the market well served by an iPad mini, but like the Mac mini, if Apple doesn't see much of a future for the product, they may just decide to drop it.
 
Yack, Who needs a tablet ? Same ugly design for years, it runs iOS, and it has an ugly protruding camera on the back
 
Apple need to find a way to obsolete iPads with A8 and older chips. The things just remain useful far too long.
 
I have an iPad Pro. No desktop or laptop anymore. I use it for everything. Even did my taxes on my iPad this year.

Fits nicely in my bag and weighs almost nothing.

You'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.
 
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Stella said:
Mac sales are rising, iPad sales are falling.
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I repeat, TWICE as many iPads as Macs sold, even with iPad sales falling and Mac sales rising. Even if the trend continues, I don't see a scenario where Mac sales will ever be higher than iPad sales.
 
Rob_2811 said:
#4 They have lost the US education market to Chromebooks despite the very very late in the game attempt to claw it back with the lower cost iPad.
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While I agree with you but isn't #4 a result of #2 and #3? iOS experience will get a student nowhere in the real world. Even MacDonalds drop their experiment with using iPads as kiosks.

Chromebook, on the other hand, is popular since it's closer to a full OS with the option of booting Linux which is valuable for experience and resume since it powers the internet world and the cost is a fraction of the useless iPad.
 
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Just no reason to upgrade cause they age well. They still sell pretty well considering other brands completely died off; iPad is the only tablet people actually buy.
 
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