Readers of Bach Seat know that I have been a skeptic of the iPads role as the leader of the “post-PC” era. The Verge looks back nostalgically to 2010 when Apple (AAPL) first introduced the iPad. Steve Jobs heralded the iPad as a “magical and revolutionary iDevice.” It was predicted to play a part in the “post-PC” era of devices. In the subsequent years since the launch of the iPad, many have debated whether the laptop is dead and the PC era over. That hasn’t quite happened yet.
Post-PC era?
The latest financial figures from Apple seem to have gotten this “post-pc” epoch upside-down. Apple now earns more money from Macs than it does from iPads. According to The Verge, Apple made $5.6 billion in revenue from its Mac sales in the most recent quarter and $5.4 billion in iPad revenue. The surprise revenue turnaround casts some doubt on Apple’s “post-PC revolution.” Apple’s iPad sales have been decreasing consistently in recent quarters. Apple doesn’t have an answer to counter the trend.
Rumors of an iPad Pro with a stylus have surfaced over the past year. Sadly, Apple has only chosen to refresh its line with very few improvements. The decrease in iPad sales is likely related to several factors. Consumers not refreshing tablets as much. The lack of big improvements to the iPad. Smartphones are still revolutionizing the industry more than tablets.
Macs out-selling iPads
Apple CEO Tim Cook famously rejoiced at iPad sales beating rival manufacturer’s PC sales, at the peak of iPad popularity. It’s no longer beating Apple’s own PC sales revenue. Without a major change to the iPad, this could be a trend that continues.
Apple is seeing impressive growth on the Mac side. A 10 percent increase year-over-year in Mac sales has helped push revenues past the iPad level, and Apple has been consistently bucking the trend of a PC market in decline. As for CEO Cook, he still believes in the iPad. “It is what it is. It will play out, and at some point, it will stabilize,” Cook told analysts when asked about the lackluster iPad sales. “I am not sure precisely when, but I’m pretty confident it will.”
CEO Cooks’s confidence may be misplaced. As far back as March 2015 people were saying the iPad had no clothes. The Business Insider pointed out that sales of the iPad hit a wall. They cite Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha who believes and has the data to prove it that phablets are eating the iPad for lunch.
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Credit Suisse’s Garcha is right when he speculates why would you buy an iPad when you can buy a big phone that does everything the tablet does, and more?
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
Such a format, he said, would contain 100 percent of the data of music as it is created in a studio, as opposed to 5 percent in compressed formats including Apple’s AAC. Each song would be huge, and a new storage and playback device might only hold 30 albums. Each song would take about 30 minutes to download, which is fine if you leave your device on overnight, he said. “Sleep well. Wake up in the morning. Play some real music and listen to the joy of 100 percent of the sound of music,” he said.
