Apple CEO Tim Cook: Drop in iPad Sales Just a 'Speed Bump'

[Trapezoid]

Problem is they're finding out those cheaper tablets are pretty good and have more features. So they're not going to drop 500 on a tablet when a Samsung Tablet fits their needs.

But haven't the other tablets been having trouble picking up traction too? If the ipad decline is a speed bump, the others are a 20 car accident with multiple casualties.

Its not like there has been one clear replacement for the ipad that's stealing its sales. The tablet market as a whole is on a decline, I thought (could be wrong, feel free to correct)

 

[OllyW]

The tablet market as a whole is on a decline, I thought (could be wrong, feel free to correct)

I think the tablet market is just settling down after exploding from nothing in just a few years.

I think most customers are holding on to them longer than the manufacturers hoped. Phones are upgraded every 12-24 months but people don't seem to upgrade their tablets as often.

 

[Trapezoid]

I think the tablet market is just settling down after exploding from nothing in just a few years.

I think most customers are holding on to them longer than the manufacturers hoped. Phones are upgraded every 12-24 months but people don't seem to upgrade their tablets as often.

Yeah that's what I think too. Phone wise i think the iPhone needs to improve leaps and bounds and I know they will with the next iteration.

But for tablets, I havent found one that is as good as the ipad.

 

[zipa]

I think the tablet market is just settling down after exploding from nothing in just a few years.

I think most customers are holding on to them longer than the manufacturers hoped. Phones are upgraded every 12-24 months but people don't seem to upgrade their tablets as often.

I think so too. Other than the fact that there's no GPS in my iPad 2 I have zero need to upgrade/replace it.

 

[OllyW]

I think so too. Other than the fact that there's no GPS in my iPad 2 I have zero need to upgrade/replace it.

I might get round to upgrading my iPad 2 this Autumn when the new models come out, mainly because I keep running out of space and need more than 16GB.

 

[scott911]

expensive memory - a down side of ipads.

one tiny datapoint.

My kids don't want ipads, even thought they are in the mac eco system. Reason is simple. They want to be able to take lots of pictures, save tons of drawing files, and use lots of storage.

Because I'll only buy the minimum storage (I refuse to pay apple's outrageous upcharge on more memory) they're negative on ipads in general.

I know there are options to sync with another computer, use cloud storage, etc. But that's their perspective, they want it all right with them, on their own device.

 

[macguru212]

I hope that some day we'll be allowed to adjust the scale and matrix size of icons in iOS. A larger iPad with the current iOS looks ridiculous imo.
I'm sure many wish to use all that screen real estate a bit more productively.

 

[RightMACatU]

The tablet market is saturated.
Apple needs a new product like this if they don't want to have to target elderly home residents to increase revenues

 

[Elbon]

Well, what bugs me about the iPad right now is that iOS simply isn't optimized for it. The music app is a stretched out phone app and the app switcher is just pathetic compared to what it could be.

Exactly. And external keyboard support is weak. I should be able to use my iPad like a laptop when I'm at my desk and like an iPhone when I'm not.

 

[ader42]

one tiny datapoint.

My kids don't want ipads, even thought they are in the mac eco system. Reason is simple. They want to be able to take lots of pictures, save tons of drawing files, and use lots of storage.

Because I'll only buy the minimum storage (I refuse to pay apple's outrageous upcharge on more memory) they're negative on ipads in general.

So in reality your kids do want iPads, you just won't pay for them.

I suggest you'd get better value by buying the highest capacity iPads and keeping them 3 years before upgrading.

$700 for an iPad mini retina with 128gb of storage for three years is pretty cheap in my book at $20 / month. I spend much more than that in coffee shops each month.

 

[Teste]

Apple is now too focused on the (American) model of selling a product that consumers are given incentives to replace every two years, aka the iPhones. The same issues they have with the iPad — the fact that "sligthly thinner, sligthly faster and with a sligthly better camera" is not enough to keep people updating a very expensive device every two years — are also common with the iPhone outside the USA, in countries in which phone companies don't give subsidies for phone replacements.

Heh, here, buying a new iPad is significantly cheaper than a new iPhone. 500 dollars less, in fact, when comparing the iPad Air with the iPhone 5S.

Apple has failed to innovate enough to give people reasons to buy their new products, unless people have help when buying. Useless gimmicks eternally stuck in beta, like Siri or Maps, are far from being innovative enough.

 

[Aspasia]

I think the tablet market is just settling down after exploding from nothing in just a few years.

I think most customers are holding on to them longer than the manufacturers hoped. Phones are upgraded every 12-24 months but people don't seem to upgrade their tablets as often.

Yup. I was one of those holdouts, being totally happy with my cellular iPad 2 32G. Until I went on a road trip this weekend and experienced some real difficulty with AT&Ts 3G through Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio. My traveling companion's iPad mini had no problems connecting to AT&Ts 4G LTE.

Time to upgrade, so I'll be watching what's announced by Apple this fall.

 

[MacSince1990]

Just a speed bump. On a quarter-mile circuit race.

I love the iPad. However, against popular belief that suggests the next iPad (Air) will come with just A8, better graphics and TouchID, I would like to see something more. I don't want a revolution, an evolution will do just as fine, but not just a routine "twice as better" update.

I don't think anything's ever been "twice as better" as anything else.

 

[LordVic]

Tablets are a mature product now. Thats all it's coming down too.

Every product segment has a life cycle with 4 pretty clear defined ages.

its a good idea for anyone who cares about any business to understand this.
http://productlifecyclestages.com/

it is of my opinion that Tablets have reach the end of the Growth stage and are now in the Maturity stage of their life. We're not going to see year over year record growths.

 

[Burger Thing]

I would argue, that most iPad customers use the device for media consumption, browsing the web, reading news, a bit of online shopping here and there, light email tasks, and that's pretty much it.

iOS in its current state is just too restricted to do much more then the above mentioned tasks *conveniently*. Personally in the past, I had occasions, where I put my iPad to the side and grabbed my Android phone to get certain things done: downloading some files, modifying them with 2-3 apps, forwarding the result, etc.

But as a media consumption device with a pretty decent screen, good battery life, etc, the recent iPad models are for most consumers good enough.

Unless Apple is offering some drastic improvements in iOS, most customers would still use the iPad for content consumption - and not creation. And for that there is simply no need to upgrade every year.

 

[Trapezoid]

Tablets are a mature product now. Thats all it's coming down too.

Every product segment has a life cycle with 4 pretty clear defined ages.

its a good idea for anyone who cares about any business to understand this.
http://productlifecyclestages.com/

it is of my opinion that Tablets have reach the end of the Growth stage and are now in the Maturity stage of their life. We're not going to see year over year record growths.

Yeah it seems obvious to me. I can't really understand why people are using it as a slight to apple. (Then again any news is used as a slight to apple here lol) Like I mentioned, it's not as if some other company has taken over the tablet throne and is growing exponentially now.

Tablets just don't get upgraded often. Nothing more.

 

[bozzykid]

Tablets are a mature product now. Thats all it's coming down too.

That is only part of the story.

The other part is with the growth of larger screen phones that are becoming more powerful each year, there is less of a need for a tablet. I think Tim Cook is already planting the seeds because he knows when they release the larger screen iPhones, it is going to further kill their iPad sales.

 

[StoneJack]

I see no point in a bigger iPad.

multitasking on iOS8. Two apps at same time. Twice the information. Twice the productivity.

Ugh, I speak like Apple marketing

 

[nia820]

A BIGGER IPad? Are we not moving to smaller products, I thought the new iPhone was supposed to fill the niche of a bigger IPad.

The bigger iphone is to fill the need of a bigger phone because we're doing more with our phones. And people are tired of having to zoom in on every webpage or squinting. Apple is now just playing catch up.

An iphone cannt replace an ipad.

 

[IJ Reilly]

My opinion is that competitors have improved their tablets to the point where some people are opting for them over the iPad because of the iPad's limitations.

I don't think making a thinner iPad is the answer, but that's what I think we'll probably see in the fall

Little doubt, we will, but not because it's the answer. Improving hardware (faster/thinner/lighter) is a constant in tablet evolution, just as similar characteristics have always been a constant in desktop and laptop hardware evolution. Since when did any of this drive sales? It never has, really. What drives sales is software. It's the software that creates those "must have" needs for any given platform. We've seen this time and again, yet virtually all of the discussion/debate tends towards obsession with the geeky hardware (or OS) features the iPad supposedly "must have" for it to compete going forward.

So yes, Apple will continually evolve and improve the hardware (and OS) platform, because that's just expected. But at the same time, and even more importantly, they will work to push the platform into areas where compelling applications can drive sales.

 

[Sedrick]

An iPad is a pure luxury. I bought my iPad 2 when it came out purely because I had just gotten a bonus check that covered the outrageous cost of the thing. I've enjoyed it all these years, but would never drop $500 on such a thing when you can get a proper PC laptop for near the same money (which is what I'll do should the iPad give up the ghost).

As frustratingly limited as they are vs how expensive they are, I quite frankly marvel that they ever became as popular as they have.

 

[Born Again]

Lose marketshare? How, because Apple showed others how to make tablets? How can you "lose" share when you start a new category and others join you?

Nobody made tablets that sold in any quantity before Apple introduced the iPad, there was no such category. So, by definition, Apple had 100%. Then others followed and copied Apple, entering the category/market. So? The market IS in its infancy.

You might as well say: "Dude, Ford has lost so much market share!" Sure, when Henry Ford invented the assembly line, he sold virtually all cars on the road. Now look, there are hundreds of other car makers! No, you have to put it all in a little more context and see what is happening in the current landscape today.

They couldn't sustain their retention of users

Others opted for smaller tablets

Apple was late to that segment of the market.

Are you telling me it's a lost cause?

 

[redscull]

You're right. You don't like the idea of the feature so nobody should have it. Because there is simply no way you could just not use multitasking in iOS.

I listed multiple, legitimate reasons how it would directly and negatively impact me even if I elected not to use it myself. But thanks for omitting those from the context of your reply.

I'm not the type to be against features just because I myself don't want them. That's selfish. But not all features are "cost free." I'm against features I don't want only when the cost would impact me.

And besides, users who need true multi-tasking are already served. It's called a laptop. Why are you trying to cram laptop functionality into a media consumption device? You don't see me demanding that iOS support full-powered programming IDEs.

 

[obsoletepower]

Definitely no need to continuously upgrade to the newest iPad. I am very happy with how well my 2nd Gen performs, with the minor annoyance of not having airdrop.

It's not worth upgrading every year but your 2nd gen. iPad is very dated. It is sluggish, has a non-retina screen which, let's face it, looks downright awful compared to the retina display, outdated graphics which won't let you take advantage of newer games, not to mention that the iPad 2 hasn't been fully supported in iOS 6.

 

[kenroberts83]

I'm not sure it is just a speed bump. Unless they add functionality to the iPad, I just don't see most people as needing to buy a new one all that often. I have the latest and greatest version, and literally barely use it. I've considered giving it away to my niece and just not having one at all.

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An iPad is a pure luxury. I bought my iPad 2 when it came out purely because I had just gotten a bonus check that covered the outrageous cost of the thing. I've enjoyed it all these years, but would never drop $500 on such a thing when you can get a proper PC laptop for near the same money (which is what I'll do should the iPad give up the ghost).

Getting a bonus check somehow makes an unsensible purchase more sensible?