It's been a while since discussing where the iPad occupies in the lives of users with respect to the iPhone and Mac. This, as Jean-Louis Gasse Monday Note (via The loop), "We all know what a PC is, and we 'understand' smartphones, but we're still debating what an iPad is supposed to be."
With the arrival of the iPad Pro in 2015, Apple tried to make the device go beyond a media player, calling attention to artists, musicians and professionals from other areas.
Despite all efforts, recent numbers show that Ma's tablet sales have declined considerably since the first quarter of 2014, when it reached 74 million units sold, its biggest brand. From then on, it started a 42% decline, having sold 43 million units at the beginning of 2017.
This fall led many to think, perhaps, that the death of iPads was imminent and the recent commercials were Apple's last breath to try to leverage its sales again. Some even blamed the longer device update cycle, the larger iPhones, the inferior software, among other factors.
Meantime, Neil Cybartwriting for the Above Avalon, showed that the reality softer than it may seem. This is because, contrary to popular belief, the big "culprit" fundamentally only one: the iPad mini.
The image above shows the overall sales of iPads, with the blue part representing the 9.7 or 12.9 inch versions (ie iPads, iPad Air and iPads Pro) and the red part representing the iPad mini (7.9 inches). ). As you can see, overall sales increased with the arrival of the smaller tablet, but they did not hold for so long. This decline begins in the first quarter of 2014 only in relation to the iPad mini, with others even increasing (but eventually declining as well). That is, from this period until today, sales of minis have decreased by 70%, “hiding” sales from others.
Not only did the iPad's large-screen (9.7 and 12.9-inch) sales remain relatively unchanged over the past four years, as they actually increased year over year in the last quarter. And the iPad Pro played an important role in these sales.
What will happen to the iPad mini from here, then? According to Cybart, the aggressive hype surrounding the iPad Pro and also the price decrease of the newly launched 9.7-inch "iPad" will make the mini line only for a "niche" those who find the iPhone Plus. “Too small” and 9.7-inch iPads “too big” for their tasks. Even though the author claims that the mini continues on the line with only a "minor role", the stakes are that the device is heading towards its end.
Cybart also acknowledges the existence of a “Macs dilemma”. In other words, he believes Apple will still replace Macs with iPads, basing his opinion on the iPad Pro ads (which extol the tablet's functions and diminish those of a “PC”), in Tim Cook's statements about the device being “ Apple's vision for the future of computing ”and at the most attractive prices of the company's newest tablet, making the Mac just a“ niche product ”.
Apparently, he dismisses the fact that the "laptops" Ma makes in commercials do not refer to MacBooks, and ignores the company's discourse about how MacBooks will still remain "for years to come."
Still, as the chart above shows, Macs are the only ones that keep their sales fairly stable even though their numbers are far lower than iPhones and iPads, and these, as we have seen, are not performing as badly as we thought.
(via 9to5Mac)
