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iPad Pro Outsells Microsoft Surface in Launch Quarter

Makosuke said:
One statistic I’m curious about and have never seen any good number for is an over-time graph of total tablets in active use.

Looking only at iPads, if that number has been increasing at a rate of some significant fraction of the total sales in the same period, that would indicate that the overall market is increasing, but iPads aren’t breaking and people are happy enough with what they have to not replace it very quickly.

If, on the other hand, it’s not going up by much, or is actually decreasing, that would indicate that there are less people overall who want a tablet at all, and it’s a shrinking market.

The former isn’t great for business, but it does indicate a relatively healthy market--just one that saw initial spikes because it was in the process of being saturated. The latter would be a bad sign, and would mean either people are happy with their phones or end up going back to a laptop.

I have no idea which is the case, but I’d really like to. Based entirely on the statistically insignificant sample of “people I know”, it seems like the “saturating market with a long replacement cycle” is at least believable--I know a lot of people with several-generation-old iPads that they use heavily and aren’t in a hurry to replace.

If nothing else, I’m 100% certain that iPhones (and other phones) have a shorter replacement cycle than iPads. I can base this entirely on the significant number of people I see walking around with recent-model iPhones with broken screens. All else being equal, people drop and rough up their phones a lot more than their tablets.
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This article shows tablet usage statistics for January 2014 and January 2015. The article is about how much Samsung's usage has grown - so I think it's fair to say it's unbiased: https://chitika.com/insights/2015/q1-tablet-update

This article shows iPad's high web usage early 2014: http://www.cheatsheet.com/technolog...-web-traffic-in-north-america.html/?a=viewall

It's actually really difficult to find data on it though.
 
petsounds said:
So much salt in this thread from MS shills. The iPad Pro is the best drawing tablet I've ever used. I love it. And it's also a fantastic audio creation tool, both for synths in SplitView mode, and as a controller for Logic. The soft keyboard in landscape mode is pretty great, without the need for external keyboards. And reading news is an enjoyable experience on its screen. It's the first iPad I've regularly wanted to use.
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And how long have you used a Surface Pro? If not you are the shill.
 
Serban said:
yes but the big difference is ipad pro is just one product that has been sold in over two millions while the surface devices are surface 3+surface pro 4=1.6 mill
so a big deal
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Wait, a brand new product outsold a product that had been on sale for years? Of course it did, no news there!

Could it be that the potential market for a Surface is much smaller than the potential market for an iPad Pro? Wake me up when total iPad Pro units sold pass Surface units sold.
 
apps alike. is what real comes down... u can use market share to calculate anything if the company restricts what the app can do, and them release stats people realize the SP4 can do more because of what can be done through apps not in general.

When u talk market share and how many units outsold something, we all suddenly forget why Apple makes the device how it is.. and flags them as such "something they had to do for some unknown reason but the SP4 does it better."

Hardly a fair indication to anything, doesn't matter what u'r getting figures for. Its still all user driven..
 
69Mustang said:
Objectivity. Quite ironic you using that word.

Many forum members can view products with actual objectivity. They also buy products based on their own preferences. :eek: Believe it or not, good products hail from locations other than Cupertino.

Apple hater or Microsoft lover. Binary much?
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This was never much of a forum for objectivity. But it used to be a welcoming, friendly forum for Apple fans. Post-iPhone it's been littered with possibly-paid Samsung trolls and astroturfing employees of competitors. I miss the old days when every thread didn't devolve into platform wars.
 
kas23 said:
Wait, a brand new product outsold a product that had been on sale for years? Of course it did, no news there!

Could it be that the potential market for a Surface is much smaller than the potential market for an iPad Pro? Wake me up when total iPad Pro units sold pass Surface units sold.
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I think 2 million in sales for the iPad Pro is pretty lousy given all the hype that Apple gave it in their LAUNCH in September 2015 - that's it, 12% of their iPad sales were iPPs - pfffffftttt.
 
TechZeke said:
I personally think the iPad Pro is selling because it's a bigger iPad which is nicer to use.

Allot of people say the Surface Pro blows the iPad Pro out of the water, but people are only looking at it from a productivity and professional stand point. If you aren't trying to run Photoshop and illustrator and just want something to play games and watch movies on, the iPad Pro is a better tablet IMO. The most pro thing most people do is Office which is what the iPad Pro also has.

I'd choose the Surface Pro 4 any day of the week(In fact I might be buying one to the supplement my rMBP), but from the point of view from someone who just wants a bigger iPad, I certainly see the appeal over the Surface.
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You are exactly spot on. The iPad Pro experience is consistent with regular old iPads which in itself is compelling if you don't need to run Pro apps on it. Granted, office to an extent mitigates some of the Pro argument since the iPad can run office. However, power users probably are going to opt for a apple / windows notebook or Surface device with a quality keyboard if they are doing and real editing day in and day out IMO. Artists and creative professionals who don't need photoshop will likely migrate to the iPad. Die hard Mac fans won't even consider a Surface based on Windows 8. So in part because of the great home consumption experience of iPads prior, some will just naturally pick the iPad Pro without ever considering the Surface Pro.
 
GeneralChang said:
My understanding from the linked article is that the iPad Pro outsold all Surface devices combined, which they estimate to have shipped 1.6 million units during the quarter (compared to an estimated iPad Pro volume of 2 million).
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Exactly, these are 'estimates' or in other words 'a complete guess NOT to be taken as a fact'. And where is the breakdown of how well the Surface Pro is doing?

Microsoft has stated and shown in its earnings it's Surface range is gaining more sales whilst Apple showed in its earnings how the iPad sales have dropped by a quarter. Much more reliable facts then someone's guess if you ask me.

EDIT: I should of added actually, their is no breakdown or mention of what Surface products the iPad Pro is supposed to have surpassed in this story at all. So for all I know it could be talking about the Surface and not the Surface Pro and Book.
 
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AZREOSpecialist said:
Apple's sales would have been blockbuster if Apple's iPad "pro" was actually a professional product running Mac OS X and allowed the use of professional applications. Instead, we get this overpriced load of sh*t with a pencil. Way to go, Apple. But that's what happens when you have a manager at the helm and not someone with an actual vision for the company and its products. Tim Cook is turning into a Steve Balmer.
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You can't be for real. :eek:
 
name99 said:
Dude, I'm sorry, but you come across as desperate.
Surface sales have been basically flat for years, and they seem to be in replacement mode now, like PCs. (This isn't a criticism, it's just a fact of the numbers.) Total iPad revenue has been around 5x Surface revenue for years. (Higher iPad unit sales, because lower average iPad price).

With all this background, the question of how the iPad Pro did is interesting because
- does the large iPad app ecosystem help?
- will people hold back on buying because they don't know how to use it?
- will the higher cost hurt it?

Now we know answers. iPad Pro sold 1.25x as many units as Surface. (This could be even worse than it looks in that I don't know how many of those Surface sales were Surface 3.)
I don't understand your complaint. iPad Pro DID sell more units than Surface, and quite substantially (25%) more. You're welcome to claim this won't be sustained or that you think iPad Pro sux because it doesn't run Visual Studio, or whatever other fact-based rant you like; but the headline is factually correct and hardly inflammatory.

Finally many readers here don't seem to understand what this press release means.
The press release does not contain IDC's entire collection of data. The press release contains merely a few tantalizing tidbits to publicize the fact that IDC has a new report available on the state of the tablet market. The actual report will have a vast collection of numbers in it, and if you want those numbers, you're welcome to buy the report (probably for around $5000). But complaining that "the tables IDC shows don't justify the claims in their text" is simply idiotic. The tables, and the text, are simply samples from a much larger collection of (expensive) information.
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The headline is click bait. They don't have sales figures for the pro and surface.

And you bought right into it!

The headline is factually correct when its based on.....

"We believe Apple sold just over two million iPad Pros while Microsoft sold around 1.6 million Surface devices"

That's right, facts start with...."we believe..."

You are also very confused if I you think i am pro surface, I frankly dont care. Editorially this is poor, though it got your buy in ;)
 
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apolloa said:
Exactly, these are 'estimates' or in other words 'a complete guess NOT to be taken as a fact'. And where is the breakdown of how well the Surface Pro is doing?

Microsoft has stated and shown in its earnings it's Surface range is gaining more sales whilst Apple showed in its earnings how the iPad sales have dropped by a quarter. Much more reliable facts then someone's guess if you ask me.
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While you are correct momentum seems to be on Microsoft's side, I think we need more quarters to really see how this plays out. I think the Surface is a vastly superior device than the iPad pro right now, but that could change. And even if iPad sales are declining and Surfaces are increasing, there is a long time before sales of Surfaces surpass the iPad. I love my devices for different reasons, but it will be a long time before that happens if it happens at all. iPad has a fantastic reputation. Windows 8 hurt Microsoft substantially that many consumers won't even consider Windows 10 devices even though it is significantly better. In some ways better than OS X and/or iOS in my experience.
 
Max(IT) said:
maybe ALL of us already own a tablet ....


Note even close to that.
Especially in sales ...


It's something like 25% more, and we are speaking about a single model versus several Surface versions.
Since the iPad Pro is considered somewhat a "niche" product, I'd call it a success, in a recessing market...

Surface ? As usual an half baked solution by Microsoft.


They are too low to appear on that sheet. Under 2 millions.
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These are made up numbers, though this mob IDC got their publicity out of it. Cant believe we are buying into this click bait.
 
Here's how I see it:

Are both companies making a lot of money off their products?

Yes?

Then what we're doing is arguing score for our favorite companies, which is all kinds of useless.

Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if Apple did sell a few more iPad Pros than MS did SPs. The iPad has excellent brand recognition, and the first rev of a new product in the line is bound to move a ton off the shelves. But the SPs have been consistently growing in popularity since the 3 came out, and doesn't look like it's slowing down. We're not arguing winners and losers here. More like a good vs. gooder.
 
gnasher729 said:
With a £49.99 tablet. That's like looking at the "motor vehicle" market and finding someone who sells more scooters than Ferrari sells cars.
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175% growth in your scooter market is a damn good achievement. Its equals more profit.

Though I dont trust these numbers, there is no source.
 
jase1125 said:
While you are correct momentum seems to be on Microsoft's side, I think we need more quarters to really see how this plays out. I think the Surface is a vastly superior device than the iPad pro right now, but that could change. And even if iPad sales are declining and Surfaces are increasing, there is a long time before sales of Surfaces surpass the iPad. I love my devices for different reasons, but it will be a long time before that happens if it happens at all. iPad has a fantastic reputation. Windows 8 hurt Microsoft substantially that many consumers won't even consider Windows 10 devices even though it is significantly better. In some ways better than OS X and/or iOS in my experience.
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With the way overall iPad sales are plummeting it won't be long before they are superseded.
 
Max(IT) said:
For Apple is just one model out of a differentiated offer. For Microsoft is the one and only ... not selling very well.
But like Windows Phone, keep having faith in Microsoft as an hardware manufacturer. They are so good at that... :rolleyes:
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This is just Click bait max.

And its working a treat, everyone is debating Surface V Pro.

I've owned both, returned them, as both were over priced for me.
 
apolloa said:
With the way overall iPad sales are plummeting it won't be long before they are superseded.
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You won't find anyone that loves the Surface Pro 3/4 more than I, but I think that is wishful thinking. For a typical home user that browses the web and sends emails here and there, the iPad can hardly be beat.
 
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