Is the iPad dead? No, or at least not yet. And a new report suggests that Apple’s tablet strategy is doing more good than bad.
CIRP (Consumer Intelligence Research Partners) published an article on Substack titled iPad Refresh Looks Like It’s Working (via MacRumors). The article reveals that customers are increasingly switching to the iPad Pro, at the expense of sales of the iPad Air and iPad mini.
In the second quarter of 2023, according to the organization, iPad sales will be distributed as follows:
- iPad (standard): 35%
- iPad Pro: 38%
- iPad Air: 15%
- iPad mini: 12%
But for the same quarter in 2024, the proportions had changed in favor of the Pro:
- iPad (standard): 35%
- iPad Pro: 43%
- iPad Air: 12%
- iPad mini: 10%
What’s interesting here is that this year Apple launched new iPad Pro and iPad Air models: it might seem intuitive to expect that those two of them increased their market share and the other two fell. Yet the Air fell and the standard iPad remained stable. Why might this be the case?
Well, first off, the vanilla iPad may not have gotten a new model, but it did get the next best thing, a price drop, especially for a device that we generally liked but was somewhat overpriced at launch.
And while the iPad Air did get a new model (or two new models, with the new screen size), it wasn’t really an upgrade. Apple continued to push hard on its upsell strategy; every decision about components and features seemed to be made to denigrate the Air and encourage users to buy the Pro instead. The Air got an M2 processor, a 6.1mm chassis, and a laminated LED display, while the Pro got an obviously superior M4 chip, a 5.3mm chassis, and an OLED display in tandem. As I’ve written elsewhere, the Air felt like a weird afterthought that was there just to make other iPads look better.
This may not be as big a surprise as you might think. And it’s certainly good news for Apple: offering more Pros is exactly what it wanted to do. Maybe it’ll now launch new versions of the standard iPad and iPad mini and boost sales at the other end of the market.
