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Apple Reports Record Second Quarter Results
- adventured 12y agoThe dramatic collapse of iPad sales is interesting. A tumble of 23% is huge, to go with five straight quarters of year-over-year declines.
- cft 12y agoMost likely tablets are dead: no room between large phones and ultrabooks.
- retroafroman 12y agoI think more likely the market is somewhat saturated. There's not a lot of compelling reason to upgrade if you have one from the past 2-3 years.
- ceejayoz 12y agoWe ditched our iPad pretty much as soon as the kids got iPod Touches.
- kenshi 12y agoAnd there are few compelling reasons to develop sophisticated iPad apps anymore. App prices are low, the platform is buggy, and building a good iPad app is a more complex and expensive endeavour than building an iPhone app.
- kstrauser 12y ago> the platform is buggy, and building a good iPad app is a more complex and expensive endeavour than building an iPhone app. Citation needed? What do you find buggier about iPads than other iOS devices, and what makes them harder to develop for?
- bsder 12y agoiOS as a general platform tends to blast API's more quickly than most platforms--take a look at all the top-line games that needed special versions for iOS 8. In addition, Apple has it's own "private" API's that app developers aren't allowed to use which makes development more complicated than it has to be. Finally, iPad's have way more screen size than iPhones. Little things that you might get away with on a 5 inch screen suddenly look really bad when blow up to 10 inches.
- moeedm 12y agoI wouldn't say they are dead. The decline of the sales for iPad can be attributed to its wildly successful launch. People just hang on to their iPads a lot longer than they do their iPhones. The numbers should stabilize soon.
- sp332 12y agoThey haven't stabilized for 5 years and the trend is accelerating downward.
- grecy 12y agoThey sold 12.6 million iPads.
- damon_c 12y agoI wish something I sold could collapse like that!
- FigBug 12y agoAre android/surface tablets seeing a similar decline or are they taking market share from the iPad?
- guelo 12y agoOverall tablet sales are still going up with low-end tablets (mostly Android) eating up market share.
- geoelectric 12y agoI think this is probably the key. The rise of $200 90%-as-good-as-iPad tablets is capturing a bunch of the market. And really, if you're not already on iOS, they're >90% as good.
- jsight 12y agoThe Surface Pro is growing very well, though I don't think it would be accurate to say that it is signicantly taking away share from the iPad. As far as I know, the SP3 sold ~800k units last quarter, as compared to the iPad's >12 million. It's really hard to say how Android tablets are doing because the market for them is so diverse.
- dataminded 12y agoI bought an ipad 2 at release and I'm just now getting to a point where I need to think about replacing it.
- makeitsuckless 12y agoOr simply on a slower replacement cycle. There's room, but it's not for essential or daily use, like a phone or a notebook, and the things it's used for don't require the latest shiny hardware. So many people that own one don't replace it until the battery starts dying.
- geoelectric 12y agoPhones are also typically on multi-year contract (or a multi-year payment plan depending on your location and/or carrier), so you get "prompted" to upgrade on a regular basis when you finish a cycle. I only really upgrade my tablet when there's a serious tech jump, like going to Retina or cutting 1/3 weight or whatever.
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoNote that is true only in America and some richer western markets. Phones in mich of the world are bought just like tablets, but are used often and so still get replaced every coupke of years.
- baddox 12y agoIt's troubling to me, the only iPad user I know. Other than my Mac at work, my iPad is my most-used computer.
- adventured 12y agoOut of curiosity, do you interface with it primarily through touch on-screen, or through a connected keyboard?
- baddox 12y agoJust the screen. I've never tried an external keyboard.
- wnevets 12y agoMuch like the laptops and desktops tablets are suppose to replace, most people don't have a reason to upgrade every two years. For most customers upgrading your phone is very different from replacing your tablet.
- giarc 12y agoCouldn't agree more. I have an iPad 2 (I think) sitting at home that I occasionally pick up. It serves it's purpose and there's no reason, or incentive to go out and get a new one.
- mixmastamyk 12y agoOur ipad 2 runs netflix just fine.
- giarc 12y agoMine is a Songza machine basically and we take it on vacation. Works great for both.
- Flockster 12y agoYes, especially casual users, who use it for browsing on the couch. There is no strong pressure to upgrade, when your browser works just fine.
- antaviana 12y agoAgreed, I still have the first iPad, bought when it launched in Europe. The browser dies pretty often compared to an iPad 3, but it us still sort of usable for browsing and watching movies.
- mcphage 12y agoI've got an iPad 3, and I kinda want to get a new iPad, but... like, it still works just fine.
- AlexeyBrin 12y agoI have an iPad 2 and it is still usable (with a noticeable slow down for web browsers after the iOS8 upgrade) after all these years. I suspect a lot of people just upgrade their tablets less often that their phones. I use it mainly as a glorified e-reader.
- stevebot 12y agoTrue that. I have no motivation to update my iPad 2 so far!
- bluthru 12y agoI think the larger iPad will help. My mom (iPad target demo?) is waiting for the larger iPad to upgrade to. If it's A4 / letter size then it will really take off for the publishing industry and academia (reading PDFs). A big downside to the iPad is slow text input. Many people love their laptops because they can quickly communicate with people.
- vannevar 12y agoI suspect a lot of this is due to the rise of tablet-phones. The iPad is now like the iPod was earlier, essentially an iPhone 6 Plus without the phone functionality.
- on_and_off 12y agoCompetitors tablets are getting better and better, the market is pretty much saturated and the large phones that even Apple has started to produce make them less interesting.
- MaysonL 12y agoA really interesting number is the 4% QoQ increase in Greater China revenue: a very big Chinese New Year.
- padobson 12y agoI'm starting to wonder if maybe Tim Cook is a better CEO than Steve Jobs. No one will ever have Jobs' combination of taste and presence, but I think these numbers are showing that spending as much time managing the supply chain and making inroads into emerging markets is as important as playing with foam cutouts with Jony Ive.
- geoelectric 12y agoYou know how it typically takes one CEO to make a newly founded startup viable and successful, then a transition to another to keep it there? Think that's what we're seeing here.
- padobson 12y agoYes, on steroids.
- lukeqsee 12y ago> I'm starting to wonder if maybe Tim Cook is a better CEO than Steve Jobs. I don't know if this was ever in question. I never viewed Jobs as a particularly good CEO—charismatic and spiritual leader, yes. Good CEO? Probably not. He knew how to motivate people to get his version of the truth to consumers, and that version was incredibly successful. Jobs was a marketer (and perhaps innately clairvoyant) at heart who was so successful at marketing that he could do a good job at CEO and create a multi-billion-dollar company. Cook is a genius at the broad-stroke of business operations and most likely leaves the storytelling and imagination to others. It's little surprise the immediate results are a better bottom-line. Time will only tell if Apple truly has enough creativity and stories in the ranks to be long-term successful. (I think it does.)
- pbreit 12y agoSorry, but I think Tim is still mostly coasting on Jobs' brilliance. Not only was he a product genius but he was a gifted recruiter. At the senior level, Cook is 1 for 2 at best. Forstall may have been a jerk (like Jobs) but was arguably the second most important person on the iPhone. Or look at it this way: would Cook be doing as well without his predecessor? Almost certainly not. Would Apple be doing as well with Jobs still at the helm. Almost certainly so.
- seminal 12y agoSome are arguing that the death of the iPad means that Apple is now basically a one-product company which could be an achilles heel no matter how many phones are sold.
- stevebot 12y agoIs it really dying? Just curious as I love mine and I am not familiar with the numbers. I remember speculation some time last year, but the article I had read didn't cite any hard data.
- Fomite 12y agoI think it's easy to argue that tablets have hit steady-state penetration, at least in developed markets, but I think "dying" is a stretch.
- Nacraile 12y agoI don't think it's "dying". Tablets are in the same situation as flat-screen TVs: the market is more-or-less saturated, they last a long time, and there is no compelling reason to upgrade. In contrast, phones have a fairly short replacement cycle, because they are subject to significant wear and tear, and there are compelling advancements in power utilization, communications, etc.
- orbitur 12y agoAnd I think Apple managed to avoid the same happening to the iPhone by introducing a new size category. It's actually incredible just how fast and new the iPhone 5 feels even today. I was perfectly happy to stick with it until the new sizes came out (admittedly I haven't bought a new iPhone yet because it costs money, but a lot of my peer group has).
- admyral 12y agoThe subsidization by networks is key in keeping people in a short upgrade cycle, and reducing the likelihood of switching to a cheaper Android phones. It's no doubt Apple people would upgrade much less often if they to shell out $600+ for unlocked phones every couple years.
- hyperpallium 12y agoJobs admired Sony, which introduced and won several new product categories. But when the founders left, esp Morita, this stopped, though of course they remain successful to this day - they just aren't creating new product categories. Cook, as an operations guy, will keep things running. But can Apple lead new product categories under him? The Apple Watch seems to be showing he can... If so, it's something even more impressive than biggest cap etc. Something Sony didn't manage. The iPad is dying not because of longer upgrade cycles, but for the same reason desktops are: it's less convenient than a phone (or watch).
- collyw 12y agoSorry are you trying to say that sending an email from a watch or a phone is more convenient than an iPad? I personally think its the novelty factor that wore off. I bought on of the first net books when they came out, but realized after a while, that a full sized keyboard outweighed the size benefit.