Roger Fingas
The split of U.S. iPad sales is now weighted in favor of the iPad mini, although the iPad Pro captured a "meaningful" 12 percent share during the December quarter, according to a survey compiled by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.
While the iPad Air 2 remained the best-selling individual iPad model during the period, both Air generations comprised just 40 percent of units sold overall, CIRP said. The Mini segment made a major leap forward year-over-year from 32 to 47 percent.
The low-cost Mini 2 from 2013 was the most popular Mini model, followed by last year's Mini 4. The Mini 3 took home just a fraction of sales, presumably because the product is effectively a Mini 2 with Touch ID and a gold color option.
The CIRP data may suggest that the Pro is off to a strong start, in spite of the cheapest model selling for $799 before accessories like a case, an Apple Pencil, or a Smart Keyboard. The firm surveyed 500 U.S. shoppers who bought Apple devices between October and December.
iPad sales have, however, been on an overall decline for several quarters. The exact causes are unknown, though typically this has been blamed on the rise of "phablets" like the iPhone 6s Plus, which are big enough to handle some tablet duties — like reading and video — while also serving as a phone.
People looking to save money might therefore just buy a phone and a laptop, especially since MacBooks continue to have advantages like a built-in keyboard, a user-accessible file system, and more powerful apps.
Charles Martin
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Wesley Hilliard
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31 Comments
Very glad to see that the mini is back on top. :)
That chart is unnecessarily confusing in terms of tracking form factor preferences though. For the purpose of that preference, whether someone has a new iPad or an old iPad doesn't matter at all. At the least, there should be a second chart that just breaks out the form factor only, and why a bar chart anyway? This data is what pie charts were made for.
Without some basis of the number of sales of iPads, this report is essentially meaningless. If Apple sold 100 iPads and 12 of them were Pros, that would be bad. If they sold 25 million (which would beat last year's 21.42 million for the same quarter), that would be stunning. Without that important context, saying the iPad mini sold more doesn't really tell us much of anything.
Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems obvious why iPad sales have decreased from initial sales - people keep them a long time, much longer than a phone. I've had mine for two years or more - maybe three? - and it works great and I don't need a new one! Eventually I may go for the Pro - but for now I'm fine!
My wife has had her iPad 3 since it debuted (2011?) and until recently I have been unable to convince her to upgrade. Now, she'd prefer a thin-and-light laptop, as she wants a more powerful multitasking environment to work with pictures. I'm hoping there will be an improved MacBook for her basic needs: photos, internet, emailing, and invoicing.
On the flip side, I'm hanging onto to my 2011 MacBook Air and will wait to purchase the next iteration of the 128 GB iPad mini/cellular. I really don't need to cart around a laptop. The MBA is thin and light, but not nearly as much as an iPad mini. The iPad Air, however thin and light, still is unwieldy. I have an Office 365 subscription and heavily use iCloud Drive, which will allow me to do "real work" on Windows desktops at my offices.