{"id":17174,"date":"2017-02-12T16:16:50","date_gmt":"2017-02-12T21:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=17174"},"modified":"2017-02-12T19:04:09","modified_gmt":"2017-02-13T00:04:09","slug":"the-slow-decline-of-ipad-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/12\/the-slow-decline-of-ipad-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"The Slow Decline of iPad Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

But put software development aside. I think the bigger problem for the iPad is that there are few productivity<\/em> tasks, period, where iPad is hardware-constrained. Aldus PageMaker shipped for the Mac in 1985. By 1987 or 1988, it was easy to argue that the Mac was, hands-down, the best platform the world had ever seen for graphic designers and visual artists. By 1991 — seven years after the original Mac — I think it was inarguable. And the improvements in Mac software during those years drove demand for improved hardware. Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand (R.I.P.), QuarkXpress — those apps pushed the limits of Mac hardware in those days.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Michael Rockwell<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

iPad owners don’t buy new iPads because the one they have is just as fast as the day they bought it. By comparison, the Windows PCs that many of these users buy are at their fastest when they’re first setup. I reference Windows users because they represent the vast majority of mainstream computer users and I believe them to be the primary reason for the massive success of the iPad in its early days.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

In the tech-centric circles that many of us frequent, new hardware and software features matter, a lot<\/em>. But I don’t think the mainstream user is convinced to spend hundreds of dollars on a new device just because it connects to a new kind of wireless keyboard or works with a $100 drawing accessory that you have to buy separately.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The iPad upgrade cycle might be longer than any other computing device in history. This might look terrible for Apple’s financial department, but it’s a testament to how well-crafted these devices are from both a software and hardware standpoint. The lengthy upgrade cycle lends itself to high customer satisfaction ratings and repeat customers. That’s something Apple should be proud of — a computing device that doesn’t have to be replaced every few years.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Nick Heer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Apple has long said that the iPad’s big display provides the opportunity to create a completely different app experience. At the first Retina iPad event, Tim Cook even spent stage time mocking Android tablet apps<\/a> that looked like large phone apps.<\/p>\n\n

But now, five years after that event, it’s not so much the apps that are scaled-up versions of a smartphone, but rather that the operating system<\/em> seems largely driven by what the iPhone can do. This was an early criticism of the iPad, but I felt it was unwarranted at the time — a larger version of a familiar interface is a great way to introduce a new product category.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Chris Adamson<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Here’s a counter-argument that is being overlooked: the iPad represents effectively all<\/b> of the “productivity tablet” market[…].<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Now even if the Mac sells less than the iPad, the PC market as a whole is massive… much larger than tablets, and larger still than my contrived “productivity tablet” market. And Mac’s not even 10% of this giant PC market.<\/p>\n

So, in terms of growth opportunities, which is more realistic: finding non-tablet-users to adopt the iPad for their productivity or work needs (and making the iPad more suitable for that), or flipping more of the 90% of people already using PCs to a better version of the same thing?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously: Apple’s Q1 2017 Results<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Update (2017-02-12): Jeff Johnson<\/a>:<\/p>\n

iPad upgrade cycle shouldn’t be the focus. Ask why new sales aren’t growing. How did iPad reach market saturation in only 4 years?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Ole Begemann<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Not sure I buy the argument that iPad sales are slow because old devices are “fast enough”. My 3-year-old iPad Air is often painfully slow.<\/p><\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Gruber: But put software development aside. I think the bigger problem for the iPad is that there are few productivity tasks, period, where iPad is hardware-constrained. Aldus PageMaker shipped for the Mac in 1985. By 1987 or 1988, it was easy to argue that the Mac was, hands-down, the best platform the world had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[101,295,31,1380,145,30],"class_list":["post-17174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-business","tag-history","tag-ios","tag-ios-10","tag-ipad","tag-mac"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17174"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17187,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17174\/revisions\/17187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}