The announcement of a new iPad used to be an event. Apple had music, slick videos, featured speakers, the whole nine-yards. But today's iPad announcement, which was done by press release, shows what some think is the staggering loss of faith that Apple has in the continued success of the device. Sadly, according to recent sales numbers, that lack of faith may be completely justified.
In the first quarter of 2014, the iPad was selling extremely well. Apple reported that they'd sold just north of 11.5 million devices and made more than $5.5 billion in revenue. The iPad division was nearly one-third the size of its iPhone unit and nearly twice that of its Mac and Services business. The iPad seemed nearly unstoppable.
But it looks like things are beginning to change...
Apple's last reported fiscal quarter ended on December 28th 2016 and things are definitely looking different for the iPad. The iPhone division is now a full 10 times bigger than the iPad unit, and iPad sales have halved, selling only 13.1 million units the entire quarter. Also, both the Mac division, which generated a lot of criticism regarding new machines, and the Services division are both generating more revenue per quarter than the iPad division is.
But, before you count the iPad as an Apple failure, consider that the entire tablet market seems to be in free fall. As the market becomes saturated and more consumers are opting for more utilitarian devices like smartphones, sales have slumped more than 20% over the last two years. Perhaps due to their devices high price point, Apple does seem to be being hit the hardest of the top five tablet makers though with iPad sales down more than 18% - more than any of its near competitors in the top five.
In the meantime, Apple and their ilk face stiff competition as consumers are starting to reject traditional tablet devices in favor of newer options with hardware keyboards or that can be used as a combination laptop/tablet. Devices like the Microsoft Surface line of machines spring readily to mind as strong competitors to the Apple style of device.
Still, there may be some hope for the iPad. It's faced stern criticism before and Apple seems very committed to these devices. Rumors abound about a new, larger, device coming in April and other rumors surrounding Apple and a push into augmented reality could further rescue the iPad from death if true. Whatever the truth, one thing is for sure: right now the iPad is in trouble. And Apple needs to do something drastic quickly before the iPad becomes just another device to fall into the records of history as a cool idea that just didn't quite work out.