iPad How can Apple increase iPad sales?

[CEmajr]

I don't think there's anything they can do to increase sales short of lowering prices.

The nature of the tablet market in general doesn't make people need to upgrade every year. We don't carry them everywhere and have them with us at all times like smartphones. So they're trapped between not being as portable as smartphones and not as functional as laptops. The one thing that could solve the functionality issue is to give the iPad full OS X or some lite version of it. However, in doing this Apple runs the great risk of cannibalizing their Mac sales and they're definitely not having that. The other problem is that the iPad 2 is still good enough to run most of the software that the iPad Air 2 can run so there's even less incentive for existing iPad owners to upgrade. What's the point of upgrading a device that is the least important and least used of your electronics when you can upgrade your iPhone or Mac instead?

The iPad 2 came out in 2011 and still sees heavy use. The iPhone 4S came out in 2011 and very few iPhone owners are still using one.

The reason I say price is the only way to increase sales is because the only place seeing growth in the market is the dirt cheap Android tablets. But as things have shown us, buying marketshare with cheaply priced items is a losing strategy and Apple isn't going to play that game. We're going to see iPad sales level off at some point and that's just going to be the normal sales trend of them going forward. It was a new product that sold quickly and obtained a solid install base and doesn't necessitate frequent upgrading.

 

[SquireSCA]

I don't think there's anything they can do to increase sales short of lowering prices.

The nature of the tablet market in general doesn't make people need to upgrade every year. We don't carry them everywhere and have them with us at all times like smartphones. So they're trapped between not being as portable as smartphones and not as functional as laptops. The one thing that could solve the functionality issue is to give the iPad full OS X or some lite version of it. However, in doing this Apple runs the great risk of cannibalizing their Mac sales and they're definitely not having that. The other problem is that the iPad 2 is still good enough to run most of the software that the iPad Air 2 can run so there's even less incentive for existing iPad owners to upgrade. What's the point of upgrading a device that is the least important and least used of your electronics when you can upgrade your iPhone or Mac instead?

The iPad 2 came out in 2011 and still sees heavy use. The iPhone 4S came out in 2011 and very few iPhone owners are still using one.

The reason I say price is the only way to increase sales is because the only place seeing growth in the market is the dirt cheap Android tablets. But as things have shown us, buying marketshare with cheaply priced items is a losing strategy and Apple isn't going to play that game. We're going to see iPad sales level off at some point and that's just going to be the normal sales trend of them going forward. It was a new product that sold quickly and obtained a solid install base and doesn't necessitate frequent upgrading.

Those are great points. Tablets are in the middle. Not as portable as a phone, and not as useful as a laptop.

Which is probably why the Microsoft Surface tablets are such a huge hit. Portable and convenient like a tablet, but a powerhouse laptop at the same time, running full windows, with desktop power...

Best of all works, but pricey for the higher end ones.

Make a Macbook air with a touch screen and keyboard that can pop off?

 

[minimo3]

Those are great points. Tablets are in the middle. Not as portable as a phone, and not as useful as a laptop.

Which is probably why the Microsoft Surface tablets are such a huge hit. Portable and convenient like a tablet, but a powerhouse laptop at the same time, running full windows, with desktop power...

Best of all works, but pricey for the higher end ones.

Make a Macbook air with a touch screen and keyboard that can pop off?

I think the surface is interesting, but I don't know if I would call it a huge hit yet. Sales have grown well but we're still looking at annual unit sales of about 4M. That's a far cry from even Mac annual sales (which as everyone points out are a tiny niche in the overall PC market) of about 20M. Even the 'dying' iPad annual sales are around 60+M.

The surface to me seems like like a combo washer/dryer unit. Perfect for a certain subset of folks with certain needs, for example to save space, but where the majority of the market prefer standalone units.

Given enough time that will change as technological improvements allow the full powered surface 5/6/7 pro to be as thin and light as an iPad Air.

 

[SquireSCA]

I think the surface is interesting, but I don't know if I would call it a huge hit yet. Sales have grown well but we're still looking at annual unit sales of about 4M. That's a far cry from even Mac annual sales (which as everyone points out are a tiny niche in the overall PC market) of about 20M. Even the 'dying' iPad annual sales are around 60+M.

The surface to me seems like like a combo washer/dryer unit. Perfect for a certain subset of folks with certain needs, for example to save space, but where the majority of the market prefer standalone units.

Given enough time that will change as technological improvements allow the full powered surface 5/6/7 pro to be as thin and light as an iPad Air.

Maybe, but they are running full blown Windows and have killer performance, something that the iPad and Android tablets can't touch. Other tablets are nothing more than large phones without the phone part.

The Surface is a stout laptop in a tablet form factor. I think that is probably the way of the future... Have your dock at home with your large LCD panels, mouse, keyboard and stuff, and instead of a desktop unit, you drop the tablet into the dock and there is your desktop, which you can then pop out and take with you like any other tablet.

It's the only one that has the performance to truly work like a desktop...

 

[S.B.G]

With Apple's quarterly results in, iPad sales are out of line compared to Apple's other product lines

Quote from a cnet article.


I'm not bashing the iPad but rather looking to see what apple could do to reverse the trend.

First the problem.
It seems people don't upgrade their iPads like they do with their phones. Add in the increased competition seems to equate slowing sales.

Solutions?
Apple thinks its partnership with IBM is one step in the right direction.
The rumored 12" iPad Pro is another, though I'm a bit of a doubting Thomas on the overall appeal to a larger iPad.
Perhaps integrating a touch sensitive stylus may help.

any other thoughts, or ideas on what may help?

I'm not sure how much anything else would help. As you pointed out, most people probably don't upgrade their iPad's as often as they do their phones, and I'm one of them.

The iPad/tablet market is probably near a saturation point which is why sales are dropping some.

Some ideas I have are to eliminate the 16 GB option and use 32 GB as the base option, lower the prices significantly, find a way to make it even more lightweight yet not sacrificing battery power. And never get rid of the iPad Mini; that's my favorite one.

 

[SquireSCA]

I'm not sure how much anything else would help. As you pointed out, most people probably don't upgrade their iPad's as often as they do their phones, and I'm one of them.

The iPad/tablet market is probably near a saturation point which is why sales are dropping some.

Some ideas I have are to eliminate the 16 GB option and use 32 GB as the base option, lower the prices significantly, find a way to make it even more lightweight yet not sacrificing battery power. And never get rid of the iPad Mini; that's my favorite one.

Yeah, I agree, although while iPad sales are going down, others are going up, so the market might not yet be saturated. Could be like the phone market, where Apple may have come out first and set the stage, but then others caught up and passed them by.

But yeah, selling a tablet with 16GB with no SD slot is really annoying. The OS takes up half of that, it simply isn't enough in this day and age unless you just want email, web and an eReader, in which case there are plenty of options at half the price...

 

[s2mikey]

Maybe, but they are running full blown Windows and have killer performance, something that the iPad and Android tablets can't touch. Other tablets are nothing more than large phones without the phone part.

The Surface is a stout laptop in a tablet form factor. I think that is probably the way of the future... Have your dock at home with your large LCD panels, mouse, keyboard and stuff, and instead of a desktop unit, you drop the tablet into the dock and there is your desktop, which you can then pop out and take with you like any other tablet.

It's the only one that has the performance to truly work like a desktop...

Yes, so true. Not long from now I see the future just as you describe it: a combination of a fairly powerful, portable tablet which can be docked at home with all of your peripherals. Perfect solution.

As for increasing iPad sales.....I don't know what to tell them. I went from an iPad 2 to the Air and won't be upgrading again for a long time. And, I gave the 2 to my kid and she'll use that for a while. So, even when one gets replaced or updated the older one gets passed down and that kills another potential sale. Phones usually don't do that....they get recycled since they aren't cool anymore at that point.

 

[Kal-037]

I'm perfectly happy with iPad the way it is, but perhaps doing something like this could help....

USB-C instead of lightning cable (maybe?)
3-4gb RAM.
iPhone 6 design.
speakers on each side (or top and bottom.)
even lower prices.
stylus support.

 

[s2mikey]

I'm perfectly happy with iPad the way it is, but perhaps doing something like this could help....

USB-C instead of lightning cable (maybe?)
3-4gb RAM.
iPhone 6 design.
speakers on each side (or top and bottom.)
even lower prices.
stylus support.

All of those sound good to me. Even if prices stayed the same but they bumped up the storage specs to say 64/128/256. Forget 16 measley GBs....

 

[SquireSCA]

I'm perfectly happy with iPad the way it is, but perhaps doing something like this could help....

USB-C instead of lightning cable (maybe?)
3-4gb RAM.
iPhone 6 design.
speakers on each side (or top and bottom.)
even lower prices.
stylus support.

If they did all that, it would be great. Of course you would then have a Samsung Galaxy S Tab running iOS... hehe

 

[SquireSCA]

All of those sound good to me. Even if prices stayed the same but they bumped up the storage specs to say 64/128/256. Forget 16 measley GBs....

16GB is fine if they would just put a damned MicroSD slot in there. Keeps the price down, and allows me to quickly add 64GB of storage for a measly $25 whenever I want...

 

[frank4]

The key to increasing iPad sales is to make it more useful.

It MIGHT be a little more more useful to me if the iPad (cellular version probably) could function as a cellphone, without any dorky third party add-ons. There are certain people who are mostly in one quiet location (some office workers, stay-at-home parents, retired people) and some of them constantly have an iPad with them. Those locations are quiet enough that the iPad phone could be used in speakerphone mode, or with a Bluetooth headset. No need to actually hold the iPad next to your ear!

Personally I am a retired person and use my iPad in every room of my house. I also carry a very old Nokia phone for the occasional call or text message. I haven't yet got an iPhone since the iPad (and Mac) covers my information needs.

 

[smorrissey]

With Apple's quarterly results in, iPad sales are out of line compared to Apple's other product lines

Quote from a cnet article.


I'm not bashing the iPad but rather looking to see what apple could do to reverse the trend.

First the problem.
It seems people don't upgrade their iPads like they do with their phones. Add in the increased competition seems to equate slowing sales.

Solutions?
Apple thinks its partnership with IBM is one step in the right direction.
The rumored 12" iPad Pro is another, though I'm a bit of a doubting Thomas on the overall appeal to a larger iPad.
Perhaps integrating a touch sensitive stylus may help.

any other thoughts, or ideas on what may help?

LOL do you want us to work for free? for a multimillionaire company? Good luck..

 

[SquireSCA]

The key to increasing iPad sales is to make it more useful.

It MIGHT be a little more more useful to me if the iPad (cellular version probably) could function as a cellphone, without any dorky third party add-ons. There are certain people who are mostly in one quiet location (some office workers, stay-at-home parents, retired people) and some of them constantly have an iPad with them. Those locations are quiet enough that the iPad phone could be used in speakerphone mode, or with a Bluetooth headset. No need to actually hold the iPad next to your ear!

Personally I am a retired person and use my iPad in every room of my house. I also carry a very old Nokia phone for the occasional call or text message. I haven't yet got an iPhone since the iPad (and Mac) covers my information needs.

Well technically, can't you install Google Voice to your iPad? It will do what you want, for free, allow email with visual voicemail, call forwarding, etc...

Yeah it is 3rd party, but if it works well, that shouldn't matter. I don't care how my devices do things, so long as they do them...

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LOL do you want us to work for free? for a multimillionaire company? Good luck..

Nobody wants you to work for free, but Apple could easily offer more for what they charge.

Android and Windows tablets, while not perfect, offer you a much more powerful and modern OS and UI, and are far more capable mechanically, with more options and features, at the same price point, the exception being the higher end Surface tablets costing more.

If sales are going steadily down for iPads, while others are increasing... then doing more of the same old thing isn't going to reverse that trend.

 

[960design]

1. i dont know if you have used air2 or not, but none of the present styluses wont work ok with air2. they changed the screen technology for saving battery consumption but they didnt bother to tell that to stylus-manufacturers.

Just to kill the rumor mill and to follow up, the iPad Air 2 indeed works with every stylus I have in my office.

I have a real distaste for 'they said' rumors.

 

[sracer]

Just to kill the rumor mill and to follow up, the iPad Air 2 indeed works with every stylus I have in my office.

I have a real distaste for 'they said' rumors.

It's great that every stylus you have in your office works with your iPad Air 2. Perhaps you are referring to those rubber or foam tip stylus, or maybe ones with a plastic disc but other people have been experiencing problems with bluetooth-enabled stylus.

Adonit acknowledges that there are issues with using their Pixelpoint on the iPad Air 2. Confirmed by Adobe.

Adonit is not alone, FiftyThree is having difficulties with their Pogo Sketch Pro.

That's just a few, there are more.

You have a real distaste for 'they said' rumors... I have a real distaste for blind defense of Apple.

 

[SquireSCA]

It's great that every stylus you have in your office works with your iPad Air 2. Perhaps you are referring to those rubber or foam tip stylus, or maybe ones with a plastic disc but other people have been experiencing problems with bluetooth-enabled stylus.

Adonit acknowledges that there are issues with using their Pixelpoint on the iPad Air 2. Confirmed by Adobe.

Adonit is not alone, FiftyThree is having difficulties with their Pogo Sketch Pro.

That's just a few, there are more.

You have a real distaste for 'they said' rumors... I have a real distaste for blind defense of Apple.

What is it about Apple devices that makes them picky about a stylus? I don't use it much, but my Note 4 has one built in... Works really well for taking notes or photoshopping an image, very precise and has a button on it for various functions. It's even smart enough to start beeping if I walk away from the table where I left the stylus, so that I don't lose it.

Is it the type of screen? I notice that my Android phones typically work just fine with gloves on, or if I am out riding and it is raining, I put the phone in a ziplock bag, which allows me to still use it while keeping it dry...

I have not tried a stylus on the iPad yet...