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IPad Interest Slowing?

O

OSMac

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 14, 2010
1,456
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While I'm sure Apple took massive preorders, the lack of retail interest is surprising.

Preorders generally come from existing owners.
New buyers often want to see something in store before spending,
and store activity seems quiet, or at least quieter than expected.

Is it possible tablet interest has peaked?
 
I think most people preordered which took the pressure off the retail stores.

I do think that many iPad 3 owners got a little over hyped and some are slightly disappointed over their new toy. I and others who kept things in perspective are not disappointed.

I love my iPad 3 but do not consider it revolutnary. The screen is very nice but then so was the iPad 2. It is getting harder for Apple to give us that giant bump in technology when you are getting close to the limits of the human's vision to see a giant difference. :apple:

As far as sales, only Apple knows as they might have finally has enough stock to fill most preorders AND have stock left for plenty of retail sales. This does cause good will with customers as they tend to hate you if you do not have enough.
 
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You can't base it just on initial sales. I expect steady sales throughout the year, so the iPad should prove to be a steady stream of revenue for apple.

I suppose one reason could be the aggressive sales of iPads over Christmas, so it wil be a while before they decide to upgrade, if at all. The ipad2 remains a solid piece of hardware after all.
 
OSMac said:
While I'm sure Apple took massive preorders, the lack of retail interest is surprising.

Preorders generally come from existing owners.
New buyers often want to see something in store before spending,
and store activity seems quiet, or at least quieter than expected.

Is it possible tablet interest has peaked?
Click to expand...

No one except apple can be sure what was expected at the retail stores. I'm sure pre orders had a big effect.

We will only know how much interest there was once Apple tell us.
 
Nah. With millions of tablets already out there, it's really no need to rush out and buy a brand new one. Tons of them going for dirt cheap. Great deals, especially if your just testing the waters.
 
OSMac said:
While I'm sure Apple took massive preorders, the lack of retail interest is surprising.

Preorders generally come from existing owners.
New buyers often want to see something in store before spending,
and store activity seems quiet, or at least quieter than expected.

Is it possible tablet interest has peaked?
Click to expand...

Only quieter than expected for us ordinary consumers who expect to see massive lines and scarce inventory. But from anecdotes on this board, to me at least it appears that preorders played a huge factor as did massive supply. There is no question that Apple shipped much, much more this year at launch than they did last year.

In Hong Kong, there were zero lines not because the iPad hasn't sold out (it has), but because there walk-in purchases weren't allowed. You have to reserve online for in-store pickup the next day.
 
For me, this was the most difficult preorder (3GS, iPad 1, iPad3) I've had. I suspect when Apple releases sales figures they will have had the most successful iPad launch yet. Perhaps people are getting smarter as to how to procure the iDevices without standing in the huge lines.
 
It's really pointless to make conclusions based only on visible inventory, and that goes both ways. We don't know how many Apple made for launch but we do know this year's launch is more widespread than last years (more countries, more 3rd party stores). That seems to indicate production is up by a significant %.

We should get weekend sales estimate tomorrow or Tues. We'll have a better idea how the launch went then. But as another poster said it's more about sales throughout the year. Will the new iPad clobber previous sales records? Most likely. Post PC world is just spinning up.

I think a lot of fanboys are experiencing "post partum depression." The excitiement of waiting for the announcement date, then the announcement a week later, with preordering proceeding immediately at its conclusion, then watching as product shipped concluding with Fridays launch and then the weeks of excitement is over.
 
Seems odd to me that apple ran out of iPads online but seems to have plenty in multiple stores and outlets around the world a week later. I figure Tim cook as the guru of distribution misfigured something?
Well, Maybe it's not cook. Maybe couriers' ability limits how many iPads can be delivered to individual homes on one day. Something seems off anyway.
iPad 3 sales seemed to generate less publicity, news coverage, or excitement than 1 or 2. Seems understandable, it's not new anymore, but iPhone launches always seem to cause near hysteria even after 5-6 years.
With apple's love for control and appeal, something seems miscalculated, maybe I'm just a drama queen..!
 
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When they did not have enough in the retail channel to avoid massive shortages in the past, people complained. This time they solved that problem and people question the current demand...

The iPad was selling 170,000 units a day in Q4. I expect that number will be exceeded in Q1...
 
I walked into the Bristol Apple store on release day and bought the exact version I wanted.

Pleasantly surprised after all the hassle trying to get the iphone 4s. A big improvement.

Unfortunately, I cann't say the same for the new ipad compared to my ipad 2 but that's another story!
 
I got in line when Walmart opened early. They sold all 5 but I could have walked in 10 minutes before hand and would have gotten one. And every SAMs club around me has double digits remaining. If you think about it the 1st gen is still usable today. And people bought tons of 2nd gen models. Not all people game and people don't want the hassle of selling a device that still "just works". Other than the screen apple really did not improve a whole lot and people are finding that it takes a whole lot longer to charge up the device, it's heavier and a tad thicker.
It's the best iPad to me but I never used a 2nd gen model and I have less than 10 hours use on the first one. If Apple made it faster for general use they would have sold out. I know it's already fast but people want to hear that it's faster to justify their purchase. Not complaining about the inventory levels. Because the inventory levels are good for the consumer but not good for shareholders.
 
I asked people who consider themselves all Mac, they seemed excited about it.

I was just curious.
 
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I think the same people who are satisfied with the simpleness of iOS are probably the same people who are satisfied with saving money and getting an ipad 2 or even an ipad 1. Most people find it difficult to come up with the money for a discretionary item such as the ipad and it's getting harder for Apple to entice them to spend the extra money on features they may not even see or have use for.

I think the next major hurdle will be input. You can see Apple struggling with input in how much energy they put into Siri and now with dictation, but they still haven't solved the problem of inputting large amounts of information thus fully replacing a standalone computer. I think if they beat the market and introduce some kind of portable input that allows a professional level of work they will break into some record sales yet again. The bluetooth keyboard doesn't do it since it defeats the purpose of just not carrying around a netbook. Dictation doesn't solve it yet, speaking aloud to enter in a lot of content especially in public isn't feasible. Apple's fear of a true stylus for writing/drawing means it won't go that direction either, shame because that's the direction that makes the most sense.

So iPad interest isn't slowing, but interest in a "new" ipad, or in upgrading an existing iPad may be slowing IMO, at least for the type of user who Apple targets who don't care about specs, which is just a little bit ironic.
 
OSMac said:
While I'm sure Apple took massive preorders, the lack of retail interest is surprising.

Preorders generally come from existing owners.
New buyers often want to see something in store before spending,
and store activity seems quiet, or at least quieter than expected.

Is it possible tablet interest has peaked?
Click to expand...

Of course there will be saturation in the near future.

There are around 7 billion people in the world of which maybe around 500-750 million who want or can afford a consumer gadget like the iPad. And many of those are not looking to upgrade until their old one dies...

So if you do the math, it is conceivable that in the next 2-3 years everyone will have an iPad. Apple might come out with something different then to spur new interest
 
I am a new iPad owner and I per-ordered. I know others who are planning to buy one in the near future ...and some people who thought a new one just came out at Christmas because so many people got iPads then. I don't think interest is slowing.
 
Ayemerica said:
I say there will be 75 Million iPad sales this year to say other wise.
Click to expand...

75 million is a bit high. I think most analysts are predicting around 55 million for the year. Which, in perspective, is equal to the last two years of sales combined. Doesn't' seem like slowing interest to me (assuming the numbers pan out, of course).
 
There is a lot of evidence that they had many more units ready for this launch than launches past.

Plus, more and more existing iPad owners are going to get a look at this amazing display in the coming months, and that's going to sell a lot of units too.
 
I still expect big quarterly numbers when it comes to new iPad sales but I didn't think the launch would be quite as explosive as it was with the iPad 2.

This was noticeable waiting in line at best buy this year compared to last.

The first iPad caused a big spike in interest but it was a new product and many people were still playing the "wait and see" game. The iPad 2 basically showed that this was a proven device and everyone jumped on it.

This year's iPad adds more features but I don't see many iPad 2 owners upgrading unless they are gadget geeks or tech people in general. This isn't a subsidized product like a smartphone where yearly upgrades are normal, this is an expensive device that the average consumer will consider like a computer. You don't see many people buying a new laptop every single year.
 
Amazing how phenomenal sales seems so ho-hum. It is like we are addicted to the rush of being blown away that we expect, nay we demand it with every incremental upgrade.

My take is that the sales will be very strong and Apple and its shareholders will be pleased.
 
I don't think interest is slowing down at all.
It just seems this way as there were plenty of availability and loads more of preorders.
With so many more availability for preorders there was not as much need for a line in many outlets.

According to my Fedex driver he had a lot more iPads on the truck then last year.
 
Interest isn't slowing at all, Apple just finally met the initial demand for one of their products. I hope they're able to do the same with the next iPhone.
 
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