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posted by n1 on Friday April 25 2014, @07:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the vintage-ipad-cool dept.

Christina Bonnington reports that the public is not gobbling up iPads like they used to. Analysts had projected iPad sales would reach 19.7 million but Apple's financial results for the second quarter of its fiscal 2014 show they sold 16.35 million iPads, a drop of roughly 16.4 percent since last year. "For many, the iPad they have is good enough unlike a phone, with significant new features like Touch ID, or a better camera, the iPad's improvements over the past few years have been more subtle," writes Bonnington. "The latest iterations feature a better Retina display, a slimmer design, and faster processing. Improvements, yes, but enough to justify a near thousand dollar purchase? Others seem to be finding that their smartphone can do the job that their tablet used to do just as well, especially on those larger screened phablets."

According to Andrew Cunningham the takeaway from Apple's sales drop in iPads is that Apple's past growth has been driven mostly by entering entirely new product categories, like it did when it introduced the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, and the iPad in 2010 and that Apple needs an entirely new category to fuel future growth. "The most persistent rumors [of a new product category] involve TV (whether a new Apple TV set-top box or an entire television set) and wearable computing devices (the perennially imminent "iWatch"), but calls for larger and cheaper iPhones also continue."

 
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  • (Score: 1) by goody on Friday April 25 2014, @08:51PM

    by goody (2135) on Friday April 25 2014, @08:51PM (#36337)

    I interpret this to mean the iPad is a mature product. Furthermore, people don't change out their tablets like they do smartphones. It can be expected they're not going to buy new ones every two years, and how much more can you innovate a tablet that has a high resolution display, all the memory you need, and one button on it? Sure, you can cram more battery power and memory into it, but if it's mainly for content consumption, the applications aren't going to change dramatically and the device will probably be sufficient for quite some time.

    I love it how people elsewhere are spinning this as doom and gloom for Apple. Some theorize Apple needs to join the race to the bottom and make cheaper products. That's not what got them to this point, it's not their business model.

  • (Score: 1) by kaszz on Friday April 25 2014, @09:19PM

    by kaszz (4211) on Friday April 25 2014, @09:19PM (#36353) Journal

    iOS v8 will need terrahertz- and bytes of CPU and RAM to write the next Hello World :D
    Of course you will need a new substation because not only will this require a new charge cord and computer but also 560 Hz AC at 450 V..