Sales of some major digital magazines on Apple's iPad have seen a sharp decline since their debut earlier this year, showing that many customers are not coming back for more.
The first iPad edition of Wired debuted in May and sold more than 100,000 copies in the next month. But according to high-end fashion magazine Women's Wear Daily, sales of the magazine's more recent iPad editions were significantly lower,with sales of 22,000 and 23,000 in October and November, respectively.
For Wired, the iPad sales are much less than the print editions in October and November, which amounted to 130,000. And iPad purchases have been made without the aid of automated subscriptions for publications on the App Store.
Sales figures for other magazines also saw downward trends after their respective debuts, as sales of Vanity Fair were at 8,700 in November, down from an average of 10,500 in August, September and October. Glamour also dropped 20 percent in October and another 20 percent in November, hitting 2,775 in the last month.
The figures also showed GQ's November edition with its lowest performance since April, when the iPad debuted. And Men's Health sold about 2,000 in September in October, down from its average sales of 2,800 in the spring. All of the figures were made available to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
"Publishers are hopeful their December and January numbers will bump back up after more consumers get their hands on digital devices during the holidays," author John Koblin wrote. "Call it an early New Year's wish."
In November, Women's Wear Daily was among the first to report that News Corporation is working on a new tablet-only daily newspaper, dubbed the Daily, which will first be introduced on the iPad. Rumors have pegged a Jan. 17 launch for the publication, potentially alongside the introduction of recurring application subscriptions on the App Store.