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iPad Fever Is Officially Cooling
Hugh Pickens DOT Com (2995471) writes "Christina Bonnington reports that the public is not gobbling up iPads like they used to. Analysts had projected iPad sales would reach 19.7 million but Apple sold 16.35 million iPads, a drop of roughly 16.4 percent since last year. 'For many, the iPad they have is good enough–unlike a phone, with significant new features like Touch ID, or a better camera, the iPad's improvements over the past few years have been more subtle,' writes Bonnington. 'The latest iterations feature a better Retina display, a slimmer design, and faster processing. Improvements, yes, but enough to justify a near thousand dollar purchase? Others seem to be finding that their smartphone can do the job that their tablet used to do just as well, especially on those larger screened phablets.'
While the continued success of the iPad may be up in the air, another formerly popular member of Apple's product line is definitely on its way to the grave. The iPod, once Apple's crown jewel, posted a sales drop of 51 percent since last year. Only 2.76 million units were sold, a far cry from its heyday of almost 23 million back in 2008. 'Apple's past growth has been driven mostly by entering entirely new product categories, like it did when it introduced the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, and the iPad in 2010,' says Andrew Cunningham. 'The most persistent rumors involve TV (whether a new Apple TV set-top box or an entire television set) and wearable computing devices (the perennially imminent "iWatch"), but calls for larger and cheaper iPhones also continue.'"
While the continued success of the iPad may be up in the air, another formerly popular member of Apple's product line is definitely on its way to the grave. The iPod, once Apple's crown jewel, posted a sales drop of 51 percent since last year. Only 2.76 million units were sold, a far cry from its heyday of almost 23 million back in 2008. 'Apple's past growth has been driven mostly by entering entirely new product categories, like it did when it introduced the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, and the iPad in 2010,' says Andrew Cunningham. 'The most persistent rumors involve TV (whether a new Apple TV set-top box or an entire television set) and wearable computing devices (the perennially imminent "iWatch"), but calls for larger and cheaper iPhones also continue.'"
Larger pocket assistants that just so happen to have cell phone capabilities.
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Cook cited one reason for the decline: He said that last year the company started the second quarter with a backlog of iPad mini orders; fulfilling those goosed the quarter's sales. This year, he said, the company has been able to keep supply and demand in better balance.
http://www.macworld.com/articl...
Overall sales were excellent though.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
I suppose someone has to mention obvious things, so you have this article. I had an iPad 2 and it was great and lasted me several iterations. I only just got a new one for Christmas this year. So... yes. People who have one already aren't going to run out and just get a new one because it's new. And there are some decent Android ones out there for people who don't want an iPad.
Same with the iPod, everything can play music now. My iPad and phone included, so sure. The idea of an iPod that ONLY plays music is sort of a dated concept. My wife loves her nano and small iPods for the gym, which makes sense for working out and instances where you only need music. But in general, things like browsing the web or running apps is basically expected now, regardless of the ecosystem or OS. Now, I don't want to _have_ to buy a phone to play music, but when I can store it all on a device that I'm already carrying around, why would I bother with an extra device like an iPod (or any music player).
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
So why would I want to use a new one yet? Apple has set a new standard in lifespan & reliability.
Apps are becoming progressively worse, not better, over time. In the early days there were a lot of cool apps written by people who just wanted to write cool apps for a cool new tool.
Now with the preverse incentives of the app market, the app store is saturated by apps trying to squeeze a maximum amount of money for a dwindling amount of useful application.
In app purchases, in particular, are well on their way to completely destroying gaming at all levels.
Every free app you download any more is ususally worthless until you shell out significant amounts of money in IAP to make it usable, and then its still usually still not good
I'm all for paying software and content developers for their efforts but the methodologies for achieving this in app stores and on the Internet in general has completely failed.
Increasingly the only thing I use my tablets for is an ereader. They excel at that, but for just about everything else the app comcept has failed.
@de_machina
Once technology becomes "good enough" for a substantial chunk of the market and a substantial chunk of the market already owns such a "good enough" device, people are no longer so eager to spend globs of cash on incrementally better devices. The threshold for "good enough" is now starting to move down the price point ladder so interest in premium-priced models will likely fade in the near-future - it becomes difficult to justify spending over $500 on a tablet when you can get most of the same features on $150-250 models.
Calling a modern mobile device a "cell phone" is like calling your car "a horse".
...when the public is calling for larger cell phones.
A wise man once said "The greatest thing about smartphones is that you don't have to use them for phone calls." Once you start down that path, you really wish they had a proper screen.
There are much better tablets out there for your money. The iPad doesn't have a (Micro)SD card slot, so they only way to get more storage is to pay $100 at each increment. by the time you get to 128 GB, you're paying $800, which is pretty close to the price of a Surface Pro, which already comes with 128 GB, and let's you use MicroSD cards, USB Sticks, or even a USB hard drive for additional storage. Plus you don't have to buy apps for the Surface Pro just to play videos from a network share. At lot of stuff that comes standard on Windows requires additional apps on the iPad.
If you don't upgrade the storage and just go with the 16 GB version, you'll spend $500 and run out of space pretty fast. There's Android tablets that are just as capable, cost less, and have expandable storage. If you don't need a big screen, there's plenty of quality 7 inch tablets for around $200
Personally, I bought the Surface 2 (not pro) last Christmas, and I like it a lot more than my wife's iPad. The expandable storage, plus again, not having to buy apps for things that should be standard, like playing videos from a network share, make it a good choice. I also like the UI a lot better than iPad or Android, and like the fact that I can open a command prompt or run a powershell script if I want to. The lack of apps is probably the only downfall, but I find that I'm still able to do everything I want to do on a tablet. There are many games I can't play, but there's enough games to keep me entertained.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I got a Sony Xperia Z Ultra (6.44 inch phablet), best purchase I ever made. Allowed me to ditch my phone and tablet for it. Bonus: It is CyanogenMod supported.
I'd so wish to see the tank of my car filled up after leaving it parked all day in the field.
Agreed. I have an iPad and an Android smartphone, and I am thinking of dumping the smartphone for the dumbest of dumb phones, which can only make phone calls and send SMS - and only needs to be charged once a week. I already have one of those as a travel emergency phone; I may switch my main number to it.
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
My wife inherited my iPad 1 when I got the 3 and I was always of the opinion that it was underpowered even when new, mainly lacking RAM. She complains a lot about apps crashing and glacial page load times when viewing non-mobile sites and it was like that when I had it, although perhaps slightly less so on and older iOS release.
Right now I can't see replacing my 3. Performance is good and 64GB storage is about my personal use sweet spot.
I just wish they would allow pairing a Bluetooth mouse. I have an RDP app that's great but the lack of a mouse when connected to a non-touch centric GUI is pretty frustrating. I don't generally care about most intentional Apple restrictions but this one seems weirdly arbitrary. I'm sure they could just ignore mouse input for stock iOS apps and the home screens and require apps to acquire mouse input via a separate API to keep apps as pure touch-gesture input. I can only presume the reason for not supporting mice is they don't want the touch UI contaminated by mouse based GUIs.
I'd so wish to see the tank of my car filled up after leaving it parked all day in the field.
I'd settle for being able to shoot it and eat it if it gave me trouble.
And calling it a phablet is like calling your car a corse. -.-
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
Hmm. iPad sales:
Q2 2014 - 16.35 million.
Q2 2013 - 19.5 million.
Yes, that's a drop in sales.
But, it's after the following:
Q1 2014 (includes holiday shopping) - 26.0 million.
That's the all-time high sales volume for iPads in a quarter. 2nd best is Q1 2013 at 22.9, significantly less.
In my mind, the way to interpret these recent iPad sales numbers is that there was a huge buying spree for the holidays that somewhat satiated demand. (Only somewhat - Q2 2014 is still the 4th best quarter for sales.) These numbers don't suggest to me that the "fever is officially cooling." Maybe it is, but more than just one quarter of numbers is needed to show that.
You can fill in the rest.
Agreed. I have an iPad and an Android smartphone, and I am thinking of dumping the smartphone for the dumbest of dumb phones, which can only make phone calls and send SMS - and only needs to be charged once a week
As we know, it never succeeded, but this was the design with the BlackBerry PlayBook. The PlayBook tablet was wirelessly 'twinned' with a much smaller phone. It was pretty cool when it was all working.
The smartphone market has been flooded with iPhone copies for years now, yet iPhone sales continue to grow. Their Mac division is still profitable and growing, despite it being decades old.
I agree that Apple get a huge first-mover advantage - this is to be expected. But I think you're dead wrong about Apple being reliant upon it. Apple will still be making money hand over fist with the iPhone when it's a decade old. They don't need to move away from old products at all.
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The cost of an iphone is cheaper than the cost of an ipod PLUS a second device to make phone calls and surf the web.
If you're willing to drop the requirement to surf the web while outside of Wi-Fi range, an iPod touch plus a dumbphone supporting only voice and SMS costs less than an iPhone, and its service costs less per month than iPhone service.
First, those who aren't heavy computer computer users; the grandmothers of the world who check their email once a day.
In my immediate family, I am the only one who really needs a PC. The rest of them rarely do anything more compute-intensive than watching cats on youtube or facebook. Among my friends, about half of them could manage with only a tablet and most of the other half uses their PCs mainly for gaming... that leaves 10-20% of the people I know genuinely needing a PC for something other than gaming.
Or, we just call them PDA's.
You know, the term that was perfectly acceptable until some marketing asshole came up with the idiotic term 'smartphone'.
BTW the only things left to them in my opinion are:
There are plenty of potential big products out there. That's not the problem. The problem for Apple is the law of big numbers. There are a relatively small number of products with enough market to move the needle once you are Apple's size.
1.) Live Television
Tough nut to crack like you said but I would have said the same thing about music a few years ago. I'd give Apple as good a chance as anyone. The market is big enough but it's unclear where the business opportunity lies. Lots of entrenched players and a byzantine market structure.
2.) Replacing the iPod Mini with a watch that syncs to your iPhone.
I think you are on the right track but the opportunity is bigger if you think of it more broadly. Think device and sensor integration. Right now devices do a rather poor job of talking to each other, even Apple devices. For instance I should have access to all my files, data, music, settings, preferences, video, address book, etc on each and every Apple device I own. It should be completely seamless. Right now it's still too spotty and device dependent. The market opportunity for that is huge for Apple and it keeps people in their ecosystem.
3.) Pull a M$ and try to merge there desktop class and tablet class together.
This is already happening to some degree and logically it makes some sense. I think MS did a hack job of it but they did establish that the concept is feasible. Apple has already started to make iOS and MacOS overlap and Google is doing the same thing with Android. It doesn't necessarily have to be a single code base but the code bases should work smoothly together if they can't be merged. Frankly I think laptops and tablets are going to converge much like PDAs and cell phones over the next few years. Right now they are separated due to the state of the art in technology but those barriers will disappear largely in a few years. Not sure how it will play out but it will be interesting to watch.
4.) Virtual Reality
I presume you are thinking of something like Occulus. I've worked in my day job with immersive VR tech and I just don't see a big enough business opportunity there to get super excited if I were a company the size of Apple. Games has some market potential (overestimated I think but some) but what else? Most uses are pretty niche. However I do see a huge opportunity in augmented reality and geolocation which isn't all that far removed in a lot of ways.
Other potential big opportunities?
1) Automotive systems are a big opportunity and car companies aren't very good at the sorts of products Apple makes.
2) Payment systems are a huge opportunity. I could see smartphones making inroads into some of what we use credit cards for now.
3) Location based services - a lot of the money in smartphones is probably going to be here. Big fight with Google on the horizon here.
4) Buying other companies - Apple has a TON of cash. They could easily buy their way into markets.
I have 'unlimited' (5 Gb) bandwidth from my cell carrier when roaming
How much per month did it cost to upgrade from a "feature phone" plan to that plan?
$25/month, unlimited calls/data
My feature phone plan through Virgin Mobile costs $20 per 90 days for a small number of minutes (which roll over). But then I don't need to make many calls on it because I live with someone who pays for a house phone with unlimited local, toll-free, and incoming calls.
iPods are products which will die.
That's fine if you live alone or have an adult roommate. It breaks down if you have children in the house who want their own music, video, and game player but don't need a separate voice and data plan.
I can only presume the reason for not supporting mice [in iOS] is they don't want the touch UI contaminated by mouse based GUIs.
It might be time to switch to Android, which works fine with external keyboards and mice. It comes in handy for Chrome's remote desktop feature.
Am I the only person in the USA with kids under 10 who has not bought an iPad (or any pad?). I know they're great pacifiers but I tend to avoid pacifiers. No cell phone that can play games either. When I take my family to dinner, we talk, joke, and draw with crayons and pencils. When we're at home, the kids play inside or outside. They don't sit and stare at iPads or cell phones in either context.
I'm trying really hard not to be judgemental because I know that everyone has their own way of doing things and there is no single right way. And certainly a moderate amount of pad/phone use is fine, similarly to how just about everything in moderation is fine.
But when I go to restaurants and I see 90% of the kids just sitting there watching or playing on a pad and not interacting with anyone, I just can't help but feel like there is something wrong. And when my kids go over other kids houses and I see how much of those other kids lives revolves around playing games or watching things on handheld devices like pads and phones, I conclude that for some kids, being pacified with these devices is a regular part of the daily routine.
And so to avoid ever even being able to get into that rut, I haven't bought any such device and do not intend to do so.
Once again, trying hard not to be judgemental, but as everyone who has kids probably knows already, child rearing decisions are some of the hardest things *not* to be judgemental about, as they are so personal and the stakes feel so high.
YMMV.
Holy hell, how did you get a "+5, Insightful" for getting it exactly backwards? Apple's strength is doing things WELL, not doing things FIRST.
1998 - iMac - first all-in-one? No.
2001 - iPod - first digital music player? No.
2003 - iTunes Store - first place to buy digital content online? No.
2007 - iPhone - first touchscreen smartphone? No.
2010 - iPad - first tablet computer? No.
> Apple's entire business is based on breaking new
> ground with an innovative new product
Their innovation is making you say "wow, a cool tech product that isn't a giant piece of shit! This is what I wanted when people first started talking about _______!" They do this by innovating key refinements, usually with the goal of "ease of use."*
And given that there are plenty of shitty, underserved markets out there, I think they'll continue to do OK.
* I.e., they didn't make the iPhone with a capacitive touchscreen and hardware-accelerated GUI just because those specs look cool when listed on the side of the box -- they did it because it made the (properly-designed) interface extremely responsive, natural, realistic, and therefore easy to use.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Disclaimer: I have an iPad Air, and the Zagg keyboard case for it.
So, if you look at my comment history from way back when the original iPad was released (which I also owned) I was wildly disappointed, as I felt it was just a 10" iPod Touch with limited usefulness.
My opinion remains largely unchanged.
Had Blizzard not released Hearthstone for the iPad - with me being a Hearthstone addict - I would have eBayed it by now. Yep. Stood in line Black Friday to buy it, and already bored of it / barely using it.
I told myself I would use it to read eBooks from my Kindle / Google Play Books / iBooks library. Nope. Even with its reduced weight, it's still too heavy and awkward to hold comfortably for hours. It's a much poorer experience than a Kindle Paperwhite.
I told myself I would use it to work on. I bought the $100 Zagg keyboard case for it. What a wretched experience. Poor quality keyboard meets the horrible user experience of stretching your arm for constant tap-tap cut/copy/paste editing. Do you use Excel at work? Let me introduce you to Numbers, a tool made for fourth graders. Getting files on or out of the device to work with is a nightmare due to Apple's ecosystem lock in. The closest glimpse of freedom comes from installing DropBox to move files out, open them on computer. Or vice-versa.
"But Wait! iOS 7 has 'AirDrop' " , you say. Sure it does, and it *STILL* won't allow you to copy files between iOS and OSX devices. Only iOS iOS, and then only certain file types. Because Apple knows you want to copy mp3s, video files, and other stuff between your phone and your Mac, and Apple wants to keep your ass locked firmly into iTunes.
So yeah, I have buyers remorse. I spent $500 on something I sometimes use to read Slashdot in the bathroom.
Do you remember those rumors a couple months ago that Apple was making a 12" iPad? They aren't. Those are probably the new panels being made for the new MacBook Air that will be announced this summer. But what would really intrigue me would be if the new MacBook Air was running iOS 8, with the new A8 processor, came with a full keyboard and trackpad ala existing form factor MacBook Airs, & came with full iWork suite free. Apple has been watching people for the past several years buying clunky third-party keyboard cases for their iPads in a desperate bid to turn them into light, portable cheap laptops. Why not just make one?
THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
Apple's entire business is based on breaking new ground with an innovative new product, exploiting that products uniqueness before the rest start copying them and flood the market with "me too" devices. Then Apple has to move on to something else.
Which is why they've stopped making iPhones now that the market is flooded with cheap Android devi... oh, wait, they didn't.
Apple continues to improve its products, and it also makes fairly high quality stuff. My next desktop computer will be a Mac in part because I happen to prefer OS X over the abomination that is windows and the amateurish copycat that is the Linux desktop (not talking about servers here, all my servers run Linux), but also because of all the desktop computers I've ever owned, only my old C64 was more reliable and lasted longer.
This "running to stand still" existence cannot go on indefinitely.
Why not? Whether or not its true, there are other companies and even entire industries that work the same way, for example the fashion industry, and plenty of people have had a lifetime of employment from that.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I bet engineers or people close to engineering came up with names like laptop and desktop PC -- simple, descriptive, non-fluffy, without any exaggeration, and most importantly, still in use. As far as sushi is concerned, cold and dead are redundant, so an engineer would have come up with something like raw fish.
And what about the marketing geniuses that came up with names like "smartphone" and "hyperthreading?" These terms are full of exaggeration (hyperthreading is inferior to multicores and smartphones do not possess human-like smartness and intelligence) making them tacky and give off a vibe that only marketing and business people understand.