Apple
Apple just announced earnings for its latest quarter, and it was a huge miss on iPads.
Apple sold 9.88 million iPads — a large number, to be sure. But that’s 20% fewer iPads than it sold during the same time last year.
Sales of iPads have been declining for several years now, which is one of the reasons the company is set to release the larger-screened iPad Pro later this year.
Apple hopes the new tablet, which has a larger screen, more powerful specs, and works with a new stylus called the Apple Pencil, will ignite iPad sales.
There are a number of reasons iPad sales continue to decline.
People don’t upgrade their tablets like they upgrade their smartphones
An old tablet is much more useful than an old smartphone. That is, a three year old tablet that you use to read the news or watch Netflix is much more useful than a three year old smartphone that you use for messaging, navigation, music, and more.
There’s a lot of competition
There are a lot of decent tablets from other manufacturers that cost significantly less than an iPad, and many of these devices are good enough for doing what people do on tablets — watching Netflix, scrolling through Facebook, reading the news, or giving to a child in a stroller.
Amazon recently started selling a $ 50 tablet that you can buy in six packs for$ 250, less than the cost of the least expensive iPad Mini.
AmazonA six pack of $ 50 Amazon Fire tablets.
Tablets can be shared
Not everyone needs their own tablet. Families can share one tablet — a family of four may have four smartphones but only one tablet.
Who needs a tablet if you have an iPhone 6 Plus
The iPhone 6 Plus has a 5.5-inch screen, which for many people, may fill the needs of a tablet.
But there’s hope
Apple is aggressively pitching the iPad as an enterprise device. It partnered with IBM last year to start selling iOS devices like the iPad to big companies in bulk orders. There’s also a chance that the iPad Pro will take off when it goes on sale in November, especially in the enterprise.
Here’s a chart showing iPads sales, courtesy of BI Intelligence:
BII
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