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And they are amazing and wait till IOS 11 drops the appeal will be even stronger I have no doubts.
 
Really pleased to see this. I've been a massive iPad fanboy from the beginning and even when people were saying iPads were dead I was still using mine religiously. I still brought into Steve jobs "people don't need trucks" when everyone else laughed at it saying it was already dead. Admittedly I do think it took apple too long to realise they needed some serious iOS improvements on the pad for it to progress but glad they've done this now.
 
The last iPad i owned was the iPad3. This has been the best update since that upgrade. However, I'm happy with the latest Kindle Fire as a tablet. However, the new direction of the iPad has me thinking about picking one up should the software open up a tiny bit more, the graphics are improved upon and Apple adds at least 3GB of RAM.

Within 2-3 years, especially with the improvements of 10nm+, I can see the iPad replacing the MacBook.
Good news. The new iPad Pros have 4GB of ram.

The $329 9.7" iPad is the perfect device for K-12 whom can longer afford to buy MacBooks. The MD101 was the last "affordable" mac for education and now that textbooks are digital and the tablets offer so much functionality it's a home run for Apple both for the educational and consumer markets.

My younger sister and brother got these SLOW HP laptops on Windows 7 which are near unusable in day to day use. They probably got them from HP near free. I wish they’d supply something like iPads to them. Though from what I’ve seen, they have to use a Windows or Mac for their K-12 school.
 
Apple has done a really good job with the hardware and the software. The P3 displays and fast A10X CPU.
But as a laptop replacement the iPad Pro still has shortcomings. And is is not related to Apple, but limitations in the ‘pro’ aspects of 3rd party applications. If you look at say Adobe Photoshop/Lightroom or Microsoft office there is still a lot more the Mac versions of the applications do. The hardware power and capability in iOS is there, it’s up to software makers to make their apps more pro. This will take time. But this is what is required for the iPad to achieve it’s full potential.
 
FWIW the new iPad Pro 12.9 models have been extremely scarce in Australia lately. Not available again until 18 Aug.

I should be getting mine on 8 Aug though.
 
People call the iPad 5th gen "cheap." $300-$400 is not "cheap" to most people, but it does make the tablet "affordable" in the minds of many. There are tradeoffs, of course, with the non-laminated screen being one of them. But the average consumer doesn't know and doesn't care. The screen looks great, the machine is fast, it works, and it's in the realm of affordable. This is a great move by Apple.

The Pro line is more of a niche market, and I hope it does really well. I would love to have a viable replacement for my MacBook Pro, but the iPad Pro isn't there yet for me. Still, it's close enough that I'm replacing my Air with either a 9.7 Pro or 10.5 Pro (I'm on the fence due to what I've read about app optimization for the 10.5's screen).

For most consumers, though, the iPad 5th gen is all the computer they need, and, in my interaction with them, they are quite happy about it.
 
It was the mini 2 that they added TouchID to and called it a mini 3. And if the Air 2 wasn't a big upgrade from the Air I don't know what would be.
You got your numbers mixed up. It was mini 2 to mini 3 that was the ripoff. All they did was add Touch ID. 3 to 4 was a real upgrade, hardware wise. As was Air 1 to 2.

But yeah, not giant leaps like the current crop that's for sure.

Thanks for the correction regarding the mini versions. Yes, Air 2 was an upgrade but it was essentially of the speed bump variety, not the kind of thing that is going to motivate non-tech enthusiasts, i.e., normal consumers, to upgrade from the Air to Air 2. The Air 2 was nicer but the Air was perfectly usable at that time and remained so even to iOS 10, albeit showing it's age by that release.

My point was not that Air 2 wasn't a good release, it's that it wasn't enough to get ordinary people to upgrade from an Air.
 
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That's what happens when you come out with a newish product, sales go up, and next quarter iPad sales will slip again when people realize there is nothing new about iPad, or tablets, for years now.
 
That's what happens when you come out with a newish product, sales go up, and next quarter iPad sales will slip again when people realize there is nothing new about iPad, or tablets, for years now.
You want to place a bet on that?
 
That's what happens when you come out with a newish product, sales go up, and next quarter iPad sales will slip again when people realize there is nothing new about iPad, or tablets, for years now.

No, not going into back to school (FY 4Q) and Holiday (FY 1Q). Versions of the 12.9 are still not uniformly available and discounting now is less than at this point of the last iPP release. Demand will be good throughout the end of the calendar year because they are strong products and iOS 11 will make them even better. Saturation will start showing FY 2Q. Then the question will be is the iPad leveling off higher YOY, the same, or did it crater.

I think the fact iPad sales are up at all is evidence that consumer interest in tablets still very much exists; that it wasn't a fad as some said. This was a significant sales uptick. Companies just have to adjust to consumers upgrade schedules and also make compelling updates that hasten consumer buying decisions.
 
The Air 2 was an absolute beast of a tablet

Plenty of argument that it is still a beast of a tablet. All relative to what you need and use it for.
[doublepost=1501677091][/doublepost]
Except there wasn't a single poor review for the mini 4.

The 2GB RAM you call a "joke" is the amount in the 9.7" iPad (2017). Like it or not, it helped lift iPad sales back to growth.

and the amount in the iPhone 7 (non plus model)
[doublepost=1501677282][/doublepost]
 
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Well, no. The old strategy of adding Touch ID to the mini 2 and calling it a 3, adding a chip to the Air and calling it and Air 2 was killing sales. Most people are not going to spend hundreds of $ to update to essentially the same device. This year's crop of iPads is really the first "all new" line up since the Air and Mini 2.

Edit: corrected mini 2 to 3 from 3 to 4.
Your entire premise is flawed — most people don’t upgrade ipads to the next version just because.

Incremental improvement is the name of the game. The Air 2 rocks.
 
This year's crop of iPads is really the first "all new" line up since the Air and Mini 2.

How is the iPad 2017 "all new" when compared to the Air models? If anything, it is step backwards in tech from the Air 2, as far as display goes.
 
Air 2 first iPAd to offer laminated screen, 2 gig of memory, touch ID. Performance was leaps ahead of the Air 1. Air 2 also added wireless AC

Yes, I know. I owned both. All those things might make a tech enthusiast sing. To the avg consumer not at all. Those are the ones that make up big sales #s. We are a minority.
[doublepost=1501678074][/doublepost]
Your entire premise is flawed — most people don’t upgrade ipads to the next version just because.

Incremental improvement is the name of the game. The Air 2 rocks.

Right, but they didn't even upgrade every two or 3 gens because they saw them all as pretty much the same. All iPads from the Air to the iPP 9.7 were rather incremental. For the avg person there was no excitement to upgrade to any of those. The first iPP 12.9 was niche because it was so new and mostly marketed to graphics and architecture.

This is the first really fresh crop in a long while. But if my premise is flawed then are you saying that good fresh product isn't enough to sell iPads? Because based on Apple's sales that looks to be wrong too. We can't say what sales would be if Apple just put a chip in the iPP 9.7 and 12.9 but I think sales would have been down again, not up as they are.
 
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I'd be interested to see that too, because I think while the majority will be the 10.5' Pro...
It's highly doubtful that the iPad Pro was the majority of Q3 iPad sales. The numbers don't support that being the case. A 15% increase in sales volume vs a 2% increase in revenue suggests a lower priced item drove the majority of the sales. Another data point in favor of the majority of sales being the lower priced iPad? ASP. The ASP went from $490 in Q3 2016 down to $435 in Q3 2017.

Personally, I think updating the iPad and offering it at a lower price point was one of the smartest moves Apple has made in a while. It's a fantastic product (best tablet bang for the buck - bar none) at a great price. Lowering the cost of entry makes it even more accessible to a larger swath of the population. Win/win.

Quarter 3 sales? Aren't we just 1 month into Quarter 3 yet?
Apple's fiscal quarters do not line up with calendar year quarters. Their fiscal year runs Sept. through Sept.
 
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The $329 9.7" iPad is the perfect device for K-12 whom can longer afford to buy MacBooks. The MD101 was the last "affordable" mac for education and now that textbooks are digital and the tablets offer so much functionality it's a home run for Apple both for the educational and consumer markets.

K-12 has moved from Macs/iPads to Chromebooks en masse. The price/performance/convenience of Chromebooks + Google Apps for education is unbeatable. You can get 2 Chromebooks for every 2017 iPad 9.7.
 
The market have spoken and they won't pay more than about $300 for limited consumption iPads. Lets see if it can sustain growth going forward or if large screen phones will further cannibalize tablets.
 
Glad a couple people pointed out the 2017 9.7" model as potentially impacting sales. You can routinely find them for under $300 at Staples and Best Buy. I had BB price match a Staples $289 promo. After my $150(!) Mini 2 promo trade-in and rewards vouchers... it came to $30.

I think the sub-$300 price point has many people giving iPad another look. It's also a great choice for users of older iPad minis who are looking to upgrade but are put off by the 4's last-generation processor and $100 premium over this faster, larger 2017 9.7.
 
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No, not going into back to school (FY 4Q) and Holiday (FY 1Q). Versions of the 12.9 are still not uniformly available and discounting now is less than at this point of the last iPP release. Demand will be good throughout the end of the calendar year because they are strong products and iOS 11 will make them even better. Saturation will start showing FY 2Q. Then the question will be is the iPad leveling off higher YOY, the same, or did it crater.

I think the fact iPad sales are up at all is evidence that consumer interest in tablets still very much exists; that it wasn't a fad as some said. This was a significant sales uptick. Companies just have to adjust to consumers upgrade schedules and also make compelling updates that hasten consumer buying decisions.
Yep this. The problem is iPads are more than good enough and aren't subject to the abuse that smartphones are. Their upgrade schedule is going to be more akin to PCs than smartphones.
[doublepost=1501683930][/doublepost]https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/Q3FY17DataSummary.pdf

Q3'16
Unit Sales: 9.950M
Revenue: $4.876B
ASP: $490

Q3'17
Unit Sales: 11.424M
Revenue: $4.969B
ASP: $435
 
Little by little my iPad has replaced my cell phone and my MacBook Air. I can't afford the new 10.5" pro, but the 2017 iPad was a nice upgrade for me. I think I paid around $250 for it after discounts. It's crazy to think that they used to charge $599 for a 32gb iPad.
 
K-12 has moved from Macs/iPads to Chromebooks en masse. The price/performance/convenience of Chromebooks + Google Apps for education is unbeatable. You can get 2 Chromebooks for every 2017 iPad 9.7.

I don't know much about the Chrombook market, so can you get a durable and reliable Chrombook for $165, which is 1/2 the price of the entry level 2017 iPad? The access to the iOS ecosystem and included apps like iWork seem to be worth the difference.
 
The iPad is one of the most amazing products ever, they got it so right with the 10hr battery life. But the iOS needs to jump into the 21st century because this 2007 smartphone OS on steroids won't cut it in the future.

I'm one of those new iPad owners. The new 10.5 iPad Pro with iOS 11 sold me.

I've owned an iPad in the past (3 years ago) ... but I ended up selling it because it didn't really keep me using it on a daily basis. This new 10.5 has been my new go-to device. I use it more than my iPhone and MacBook Air now.

I am really interested why are you more impressed with the newer iPad? Isn't it just a faster version of the older models? Also the 10.5 is heavier I believe.
 
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