iPad Demand Soars as Apple Widens Lead Over Samsung and Xiaomi

[pdaholic]

Not exactly the same, but I love using my Z Fold 6 in unfolded "tablet" mode. It's lighter than my iPad mini, and it has been fantastic for reading journal articles and books. Some things I like better about Android, and some things I miss from iOS. OneUI 7 has made the Android experience very similar to iOS.

 

[russell_314]

Third: You like suffering with bad tablet devices.

I try not to kink shame 😂

 

[CEmajr]

iPad only accounts for 7% of AAPL revenue. Mac 8%. iPhone half. Their so-called "services" 25%.

Explains the strategy of endlessly pumping out mediocre, barely-updated phones and AAPL's desire to keep shaming society into thinking everyone needs the newest iDevice to "not look poor" (I'm guilty of falling for it, too). If iPhone loses dominance in the US they are seriously screwed. I doubt they will ever make another product that reaches the same level of success.

When US carriers started offering financing for phones that basically guaranteed permanent iPhone market dominance. It removes the biggest advantage that Android has in other countries: Price (upfront)

 

[frownface]

Not surprising at all. Other brand tablets are pretty much not an option

 

[Dark_Omen]

Of course. iPads are the only way to go.


There’s only two reasons to buy an android tablet. The most common is you want the cheapest possible tablet for a very young child who will destroy it. The second is you have some issue with Apple.

Did I forget one?

If one wants:

- A more visually appealing anti-reflective display.
- A free stylus with the tablet (instead of a $140 Apple Pencil purchase).
- An OS with actual AI embedded in it.
- To cross use their messages, photos, and other programs with their Android phone
- A thinner and lighter device than an iPad.


.... Then yes, you should skip the iPad. Seems like you forgot about five other points at a minimum.

 

[falainber]

Of course. iPads are the only way to go.


There’s only two reasons to buy an android tablet. The most common is you want the cheapest possible tablet for a very young child who will destroy it. The second is you have some issue with Apple.

Did I forget one?

There are other reasons which, it seems, you are not aware of:
- better (OLED) screens
- better multitasking OS
- better multi-window GUI (Samsung Dex)

 

[code-m]

If only iPadOS permitted out of AppStore apps to be installed and sandboxed it would completely kill all AndroidOS tablets. Lower the price of the entry level to add fuel to the fire and it’s now a market monopoly.

 

[pdaholic]

There are other reasons which, it seems, you are not aware of:
- better (OLED) screens
- better multitasking OS
- better multi-window GUI (Samsung Dex)

Yeah Dex is a huge benefit over ios.
"But but but ipados has Stage Manager!"
Stage Manager isn't even in the same league as Dex.

 

[ds2000]

Or you just want want to use another company’s product
Just because you buy another tablet then it’s quite possible it meets your requirements and not because you have an issue with Apple

Yep, I've got a SM-X110 Galaxy Tab A9 8.7 and its a brilliant little device. We use it for a wall tablet with home assistant because I dislike homekit massively. The tablet screen is just as responsive as any iPad.

 

[Stuwil]

Yep, I've got a SM-X110 Galaxy Tab A9 8.7 and its a brilliant little device. We use if for a wall tablet with home assistant because I dislike homekit massively. The tablet screen is just as responsive as any iPad.

Exactly there are multiple different reasons why some would choose another product over an iPad

 

[adib]

Of course. iPads are the only way to go.


There’s only two reasons to buy an android tablet. The most common is you want the cheapest possible tablet for a very young child who will destroy it. The second is you have some issue with Apple.

Did I forget one?

A third reason: one needs (or wants) an e-ink screen without being tied to any particular e-book vendor.

 

[antonrg]

No surprise here. The iPad is the best tablet on the market.

 

[russell_314]

A third reason: one needs (or wants) an e-ink screen without being tied to any particular e-book vendor.

I wouldn’t put e-ink devices in the same category as an iPad or android tablet. It would be nice if Apple made something like that, but I don’t see it happening.

 

[russell_314]

If one wants:

- A more visually appealing anti-reflective display.
- A free stylus with the tablet (instead of a $140 Apple Pencil purchase).
- An OS with actual AI embedded in it.
- To cross use their messages, photos, and other programs with their Android phone
- A thinner and lighter device than an iPad.


.... Then yes, you should skip the iPad. Seems like you forgot about five other points at a minimum.

There are other reasons which, it seems, you are not aware of:
- better (OLED) screens
- better multitasking OS
- better multi-window GUI (Samsung Dex)

That’s a lot of words for “I don’t like Apple products” 😂

 

[Fara82Light]

Well done. It was not long ago that analysts were asking if Apple was committed to the iPad due to the collapse in sales.

 

[Fara82Light]

Only people I know who use Android Tablets are my parents who got them free with some cellphone deal a few years back. They only stream shows on them. I suppose I have to concede that a couple of friends with young children also use Amazon Fire tablets - again as streaming devices.

iPad just does the tablet thing so much better than Android that it's no surprise that it dominates the market.

Tablets are widely used by business travellers. It is also widely used by Customer Service teams that roam from their "base" - such as airline cabin crew, field engineers and field staff in general. The advantage is the screen size and pen input which facilitate the use of custom apps.

 

[Fara82Light]

I travel quite a bit, just not to Europe. Also, I generally travel to parks and/or off-grid areas for backpacking and hiking. I don't see a lot of people or at least people using much tech.

Yeah, I think if you are frequently travelling outside of rural areas, you are likely to see fewer iPads and tech devices in general due to the general need to conserve battery life, discouraging their use. Trades people on the other hand use them quite a lot in conjunction with trade-related custom apps.

 

[Fara82Light]

Don’t these people know that the iPad needs a filesystem and windowing like macOS and everything else like macOS before it can be a product as good as macOS?

Does this mean that the world doesn’t care all that much about macOS?!

I wonder how many people have an iPhone, have an iPad, picks up a Mac and wonder how it works? Then they take it back to the store or sell it? Of all the Macs sold in one day, how many are “I want and prefer macOS” and how many are, “Whatever the thing with the Apple logo comes with.”?

iPadOS is aimed at a different market and user base. It does not need to mirror the features of macOS to serve that target audience.

 

[adib]

I wouldn’t put e-ink devices in the same category as an iPad or android tablet. It would be nice if Apple made something like that, but I don’t see it happening.

Sure, most e-ink devices can't qualify as Android. But Boox devices are legitimate Android devices with full Play Store support.

 

[adib]

I bought and use an OLED Android tablet because in the dark at very low brightness, it has less temporal dithering noise than the M4 iPad Pro (I wanted to upgrade from the former to the latter, but due to that upgraded to a newer Android instead), just enough to make the difference between distracting and nondistracting for me; and also for a few Android-only apps. In addition, I prefer some aspects of the Android web browsers. I nevertheless also own and use several iPads.

If temporal dithering bothers you, switch to e-ink, which does 100% spatial dithering. Android tablets with e-ink screens have various options, including monochrome, color, stylus support, etc.

 

[klasma]

If temporal dithering bothers you, switch to e-ink, which does 100% spatial dithering. Android tablets with e-ink screens have various options, including monochrome, color, stylus support, etc.

Thanks, but it's not reading where it bothers me, and e-ink is only good for reading.

 

[adib]

Thanks, but it's not reading where it bothers me, and e-ink is only good for reading.

Watching anime works too, in my experience.

 

[klasma]

Watching anime works too, in my experience.

Maybe if you don't care about accurate colors.

 

[mech986]

It would be interesting to know which iPad models are selling so well.

Apple Q1 CY25 Canalys sales data

iPad rev. $6.402B, up 15% YoY.
iPad sales 13.746M, up 14% YoY

iPad ASP $466, up slightly YoY from $462 in 2024. That’s why there is almost a direct correlation in % gain in revenue vs sales for this particular quarter.

The ASP of $466 suggests strong sales of the base iPad (ASP is $20 more than the 256gb base model at list prices) and decent sales of all the other higher priced iPads. Not bad for Q1CY25 and reflects the same growth from Q4CY24. We’ll see if it continues through the end of school year, and back to school time periods.

 

[subjonas]

Watching anime works too, in my experience.

Watching anime on e-ink is good? Do you mean manga?