Saturation and people are satisfied with what they have.<p>Take my mother-in-law (please) for example. She does _everything_ on her iPad. Banking, email, surfing the web. She literally (yes, literally) hasn't touched her desktop computer in years.<p>But, she's still only on an iPad 2. She'll run that into the ground before she'll get another. She loves it, but isn't on any "upgrade cycle", the same for many people.<p>Now, it would be different if iPad sales were down 18%, yet Android or Windows tablet sales were rising to fill in that gap. As it is, _all_ tablet sales are down.
I am a father of 2 year old. I did not experience being a parent before iPad arrived but I suspect it changed the parenthood completely. These days I see all kids of all ages interacting with tablets. My son started using one before he was 1 year old, now he is experienced user, able to start, launch games he likes and videos he wants to see on youtube. Its so powerful as it is scary. Everyone from parents is scared what it will do to kids. Parents are split on this, I embrace it (because its so easy to have a break from hyperactive son) but some fight it furiously and swear by it. How many parents are there in the world, how many kids are there? Is there a way for Apple to serve this market better?
The article misses a more likely reason for the declining sales: maybe sales of the iPad are declining - not because the iPad has lost its appeal - but because the market is saturating and most people who wanted an iPad, have already got one. Folks who have iPads that are 3 or 4 year old are not in the market for newer models - as the old ones are working just fine.
It's crazy how out of whack people's expectations for Apple have become.<p>I mean after the string of iMac => iPod => iTunes => iPhone, people were just expecting iPad to split the earth in half or I don't know what. Not that the article's reasoning is wrong about the ultimate utility of an iPad, but I find it really hard to describe it as a "meh" product. Remember tablets before the iPad? There were a lot of them but you probably don't remember any because none got any market traction whatsoever.
I think thats just natural maturity of the product. Novelty has worn off but there's still enough utility to drive steady mainstream demand. 'Meh' is a bit harsh. It's just become a standard piece of your house like a TV or coffee maker that you now assume is probably going to be present. Not a bad place to be for Apple for a five year old product.
As others have said, a lot of people already own iPads and there's nothing about the current concept/design that encourages especially upgrade cycles. Not that there's anything wrong with that from a consumer perspective. It does what it does pretty well and doesn't really call out for incremental improvements to battery life/resolution/processor power/etc. although those do naturally come about with each iteration. And, of course, the carriers don't subsidize upgrade cycles as they do with phones.<p>Being able to share data plans with phones at nominal cost would be one interesting upgrade driver but that's really in the hands of the carriers and is unlikely.<p>The other interesting possibility across both Macbook and iPad lines would be some sort of reconvergence of tablet and laptop experience but Apple got to where it is by doing the precise opposite so I'm not sure Apple feels a big impetus to shift up the playing field right now. (Microsoft OTOH has been trying to parlay its desktop strength with tablets that are more tightly coupled but with somewhat limited success--to say nothing of the fact that Windows 8 was largely a product of this thinking.)
68 million devices last year is meh? It's not a big deal because everyone in the world doesn't want one? A decade ago Apple was only selling 4m-5m Macs a year. Now hundreds of millions buy Apple "computers" creating a massive ecosystem. When they only sell 5 million watches in the next 12 months, I hope we don't waste too much time with the meh's.
I waited in line for the iPad, and I bought two iPad 3s (because I lost one of them)....I really enjoyed the iPad, and it did feel revolutionary.<p>But in a twist of timing, shortly after I bought my first iPad, I also got a Macbook Air...and that was both so portable and such a delight to use that the iPad was relegated to novelty and gaming device. I barely use my iPad 3 anymore, except as a time-waster for reading websites...and it's not bad at that (in fact, I'll sometimes stow it away, as it's too tempting to just take it out and read in bed)...it's just that it doesn't fundamentally change how I interact with the world. It's simplicity was beautiful...but it ended up being too simple for me...and I'm pretty relieved that it hasn't taken over the world. There are just too many things in computing and in the general work of creation that require more than multi-touch gestures. I hope the keyboard is here to stay for a long while.
In my opinion the problem with iPad is iOS. Not saying that iOS is bad it's just not as good enough for tablets. The iPad Air 2, for example, has a huge amount of power in it's CPU and it's not by far being used on OS level functionality like multitasking. Until Apple makes iOS more appealing and functional for tablets people will find it boring or "just another version of an iPhone/iPod with big screen". Also there are some good and cheaper Android tablets in the market. For these reasons people don't feel excited about iPad as they were before.<p>I owned an iPad 3 and now an Air 2 and i can say that the hardware is top notch and it still continues to be probably the best tablet of the market overall. I also use an Android Phone. :)
I was just discussing this with someone the other night. I got the first iPad and for the first 2 years, I was a junkie for new apps. Little pieces of software that specialize in 1 thing? GREAT!<p>Nowdays though, even with the newest iPad, I barely use it for anything beyond browsing, video, and books. I know they keep pushing it to be a tool, but when I want to do real work, I go to my computer.
It's good for light gaming, I play driving games all the time on it, but I would never bother with driving games on my PC.<p>It's good for light computing, I see my husband on the couch with his iPad air all the time writing emails, reading the news, browsing Youtube etc. Yes he can do that in front of his computer, but the couch is much more comfy.
I got an iPad soon after they were released. I never really used it much, and for a few years I pretty much ignored the tablet scene.<p>Then I took a long overseas holiday. It was great having something bigger than my phone, but easier to transport than my laptop. I soon bought the new iPad Mini, and I've combined it with a Wacom Creative Stylus 2. Now I can draw and take notes on my iPad. It's really changed the way I work.<p>I would suspect market saturation has been reached though. Also there are few new features that would compel an upgrade. That's been true of a lot of tech though - my laptop is three years old and I don't intend to replace it this year.
"Meh!"? Really?<p>Apple has a product portfolio. I agree iPhones are doing much better right now in terms of growth, but I have no doubt that the completeness of their portfolio (from macs to ipads to iphones) is what keeps sales for all product categories going just a bit more.<p>I bought an ipad first, and then bought a macbook. The next phone I buy might be an iPhone - which I never would have, if I had not bought the iPad.<p>And amongst tablets, I don't understand which other tablet is better than an iPad.<p>For a category defining product that still sells millions of units per year, I think calling it "Meh" is just passing an opinion for journalism.
iPads are still massive for music production. Having a standalone piece of hardware that can act as multiple synths & effects, a vocoder, even a DAW, at an acceptable latency, is a huge boon.
I wonder what the sales numbers look like if isolated solely to commercial/education/government purchases. The small business I work for is one of a number in the area that has transitioned to an iPad solution (Square stand) for all our POS needs in the last year, and there are a lot of other business use cases where tablets make far more sense than the alternatives, much more so than for people at home.
There is definetely some truth to the article that the IPad does not really serve any very useful purpose. I have 3 IPads lying around at home, so I just made a "family calendar" web application for IPad and put it up on the wall. The app shows the weather forecast, today's events from the Google family calendar, a notice board, and also serves as light switch for Phillips Hue scenes.
You can only be <i>avant-garde</i> for so long before you're just <i>garde</i>. But it's still a fine tablet, and the iPad really opened up the tablet market for the first time.
Doesn't even need an article.<p>Year 1: Apple fans buy it because they always buy everything apple sells.<p>Year 2: Some other rich people buy it, because they were shown it by apple fans.<p>Year 3: People buy it because other tablets aren't as mature; people start realising that doing normal day to day tasks on a tablet sucks.<p>Year 4: "Everyone has one", while at the same time most are actually shoved into cupboards or buried under desk clutter.<p>Year 5: People have realised tablets are impractical. For serious tasks, a computer is better, while for portability, a phone is better. Sales are now driven by replacement with new models and the 2nd world consumers buying their first, while most ipads are sitting in a cupboard or on a shelf somewhere.
iPad and iPhone were once pretty different. But with iPad mini and iPhone biggy, they're all but the same product line now.<p>I'm almost certain that Apple knew a big iPhone might cannibalize some sales of the iPad mini.
I think most people don't have the need to push their iPad particularly hard and so hardware as old as the iPad 2 is probably good enough.<p>Myself, I upgraded from 'The New Ipad' (whatever number that one was) to the latest iPad Air 2 for the massive performance boost. I'm a software developer and use my iPad for the Omni tools (OmniPlan, OmniFocus, OmniGraffle) and also for Keynote. My older iPad was having trouble switching apps because of its limited RAM.<p>BTW, if you're thinking about getting the Omni tools be prepared to spend some money. They work best when you have them on all three devices - laptop/desktop, iPad, and iPhone. Each has a different UI devoted to that platform and somewhat different functionality.<p>Sometimes when I fly I don't even break out my laptop. I instead do planning on my iPad using my logitech bluetooth keyboard.