Daniel Eran Dilger
Apple isn't just waiting around for iPad sales to pick up speed. In its earnings conference call with analysts, Apple's chief executive Tim Cook stated the first wave of IBM's Mobile First apps targeting businesses would arrive next month, while separately noting that iPad now accounted for 90 percent of U.S. tablets used in education.
"We forged a landmark partnership with IBM to provide a new generation of Mobile enterprise applications designed with our products' legendary ease of use and backed by IBM's cloud services and data analytics," Tim Cook stated in his prepared opening remarks.
"Our partnership aims to redefine the way work gets done, address key industry mobility challenges, and spark true mobile led business change. Developer teams have been working closely to develop the first wave of Mobile First solutions and these solutions will be ready for customers beginning next month, across six sectors: banking, government, insurance, retail, travel and transportation, and telecommunications."
In the same breath, Cook noted, "we've brought tremendous new talent and technology into Apple through 20 acquisitions in fiscal 2014, including seven in the September quarter." "Hundreds of corporations around the world have expressed interest in Mobile First solutions. We are actively working with over 50 of them to become foundation clients for Mobile First solutions in their industries." - Apple CFO Luca Maestri
Even before IBM's first Mobile First apps launch, Maestri noted that "we continue to see strong momentum in enterprise for iPad. Organizations around the world continue to deploy, manage and develop amazing in-house apps for iPad."
Maestri cited pharmaceuticals firm Sanofi, which he reported has over 25,000 iPads in use and over 450 in-house apps that it uses to sell products to doctors and healthcare providers.
He also noted premium eyewear designer Luxottica, which has deployed over 10,000 iPads for use in retail to help size and fit products for customers.
Maestri added that since the announcement of Apple's partnership with IBM, "hundreds of corporations around the world have expressed interest in Mobile First solutions. We are actively working with over 50 of them to become foundation clients for Mobile First solutions in their industries."
The number of registered enterprise developers was also reported to be up 39 percent year over year, nearly double the overall 20 percent growth rate among new third party developers that Apple reported for the year.
Apple narrowly beat analyst expectations of iPad sales (below) in the September quarter, prior to introducing its new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 earlier this month.
iPad & Macs in education
Maestri also stated that "iPad continues to lead the U.S. education tablet market with 90 percent share based on the latest data from IDC." In the September quarter, he noted that the St. Paul, MN school district had purchased over 22,000 iPad Airs and 5,000 iPad minis in the first phase of its "personalized learning through technology" plan that will ultimately equip each student with an iPad.
However, iPad sales aren't just replacing Macs, particularly in higher education. Maestri said that Mac were sales up 21 percent overall, with "double digit growth in most markets around the world" and particularly impressive performance in emerging markets," where Mac sales were up 46 percent.
"These results were truly remarkable given the retraction in the global PC market. We've now gained market share in 33 of the last 34 quarters."
Cook also noted that Macs had an "absolutely a blow away quarter," adding that "the back to school season voted and the Mac won. It carried the day. I'm really proud of that, and of the Mac team [...] Being up 21 percent in a market that is shrinking, it just doesn't get better than that."
IDC reported Mac estimates earlier this month that were more than 10 percent lower than Apple's actual Mac sales, and cited growth of just 8.9 percent (versus Apple's actual Mac growth of 21 percent).
iPad as a third platform
iPad appears to have achieved the "third platform" goal that Apple's Steve Jobs described for the new tablet almost five years ago. Rather than an unsustainable bubble of hyper-growth that Acer's netbooks achieved in 2009 at the painful expense of eating into conventional PC sales and profit margins, Apple's iPad has grown into a business larger in both units and revenues than the Mac (although in this quarter, Mac revenues exceeded those of iPad).
And rather than cannibalizing its Mac sales to achieve this, iPads appear to have helped Apple to expand its Mac sales via a halo effect, attracting new customers to OS X via iOS, a practice Apple is doubling down on with new Continuity features in its upcoming OS releases.
During the earnings call, Cook specifically cited Continuity as a feature that "only Apple" can deliver, making it more attractive for Apple customers to buy other products from the company as well.
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
95 Comments
Like I said, the market is nowhere near saturated. The market is far beyond consumers playing games.
I'm sure it isn't as saturated as some analysts might have us believe. I'm hoping IBM's involvement will bring more advanced features to the iPad like network authentication, multiple user support, better multitasking, specifically being able to run more than one app at a time in the background and not just apps from Apple. I want to be able to open up a SSH terminal, start a program and than minimize the terminal without having the connection terminated until I choose too. I especially want to be able to run multiple music creation apps at once while playing sound, I.e. a beat machine, synthesizer, bass, distortion effects for my violins, etc. Display a movie through the HDMI dongle and still be able to use the tablet, just to name a few things I would like to be able to run in the background. All absolutely normal activities when I use either my Windows 8 or Android tablet, except I mostly use Miracast instead of the HDMI out for displaying videos. Am I asking for to much or are people satisfied with these limitations. I think it will be great to be able to finally run two apps side by side though, about time but still great never the less. Talking about enterprise, I want to order a new keyboard case for my new iPad Air 2 and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with ClamCase.They look fantastic and are one of the first to have such a case available for the new iPad Air 2. [IMG]http://lghttp.5654.nexcesscdn.net/8041F9/mage/skin/frontend/pro/ccipair/images/best-ipad-air-keyboard-case@2x.png[/IMG] [IMG]http://lghttp.5654.nexcesscdn.net/8041F9/mage/skin/frontend/pro/ccipair/images/automagically/ccair_autowake_036@2x.jpg[/IMG]
[@]Relic[/@] - nice looking case! I'd give it a try if i were you regardless of whether anyone chimes in a review or not. Now about the rest of your "wishes" post. You and your family are so technologically fit that I have to place you in the "outlier" category. The things you do... and want to do more of... is just not on an "average" users radar. In fact it is the focused full-screen nature of using an iPad that have caused so many millions to gravitate to the platform. Multitasking has always been great for people like yourself and many folks here and on assorted tech forums, but you really should observe how the average person uses a PC or even a Mac. It is so primitive*** as to wonder why Microsoft and Apple has had the success they they have had on desktops over the years. And witness: Microsoft is having a very hard time of staying relevant outside of the old enterprise systems the way it is. I expect iPads to remain the way they are for some time to come, especially with enterprise now getting involved more deeply. In my experience, it has been the 40-60 year old sales people and executives that are the most primitive of users and the most difficult to train. They absolutely love iPads for the reason that you're giving why Apple should integrate more multitasking. *** My description of "primitive usage": is a 27" monitor where everything including finder windows open to 100% full screen, and then closed (or quit in windows) every time a user moves to doing something else. Really... you don't know how many times within the last couple of years that I've shown people how to "minimize" a program or window, use drag and drop, or even Strg (Cmd) - Tab to cycle through windows or programs. Or how to change from icon view to detailed (list) view and sort columns by date rather than name. Many of these people have been on a desktop computer for no less than 12-15 years(!) and are successful business owners or sales executives in their 50's.
[quote name="Relic" url="/t/182956/ibms-first-enterprise-apps-for-ipad-to-launch-next-month-as-ipad-reaches-90-percent-tablet-share-in-u-s-education#post_2624029"]I especially want to be able to run multiple music creation apps at once while playing sound, I.e. a beat machine, synthesizer, bass, distortion effects for my violins, etc.[/quote] Just to touch this one topic, why isn't there a music app that can do all these things, surely you can't be the only person wanting this. It sounds like it makes sense to want it; are the music apps you use limited in other areas as well? [quote name="ThePixelDoc" url="/t/182956/ibms-first-enterprise-apps-for-ipad-to-launch-next-month-as-ipad-reaches-90-percent-tablet-share-in-u-s-education#post_2624047"]Strg (Cmd) - Tab to cycle through windows or programs.[/quote] I keep clicking on the icons when doing an Alt-Tab on Windows and people call me stupid for trying that. Who's the stupid one there¿ As to your post, fully agree. Again.
We've had 3 quarters in a row of negative growth YOY. Some people say that just means iPad is more like the PC than smartphone in terms of replacement cycles. Yet Mac sales were the best ever this quarter without any new products having been released by Apple. Seems to me iPad is being canibalized by the iPhone and the Mac. Cook says he's fine with that. But how about doing something with iPad beyond making it thinner to help spur growth? How about a larger iPad that has digitizer support and side by side app multitasking? Apple has filed many pen based patent applications. When do we see them come to fruition? They've also filed many patent applications for different Smart Cover uses. We haven't seen any of those either. I think iPad is ripe for experimentation by Apple. The improvements we got with iPad Air 2 are great but not mind blowing. And I'm not talking about the chip technology (or Touch ID). The chip technology Apple is working on belongs in more than just a super thin iPad.