[Barty]

I'm late to the thread, but going back to the original question, I think tablet sales are down for Samsung too, so the high end tablets are getting hurt by the mid ends, not to mention the cheapie ones. I have an iPad 3 that I bought for $500 and a used nook hd+ for $120. The iPad is nicer and it's what I use 95% of the time although functionally they're arguably about the same.

I would not pay for a nicer Android tablet because it'll just be a faster version of my nook hd+, which already has Kit Kat and 1080p screen and an SD slot. I don't use it much because 1/ I don't like the 16:10 screen (16:9 is even worse). 2/ while the big major apps are more or less the same on both platforms, the smaller third party apps are generally more polished on is. For ex, I consume web content mainly via RSS and I don't find anything as good as Mr Reader on Android. 3/ everything looks generally nicer to my eyes on ios, probably because the apps are designed to be pixel perfect. Also, I think the android fonts are kind of ugly. Helvetica may be a boring choice, but it's a classic for a reason.

Sorry, I digress.

Point is, I don't want to pay for a nicer iPad either, because it'll just be a faster version of what I have now. Sure I took a bit of a performance hit when upgrading from ios 6 to 7, but once I turned off the fancy animation, it's running fine. Maybe ios 8 will run too slow, in which case I just won't install the upgrade. The battery life is still fine. I can still go a couple of days before a charge. Sure thinner and lighter is nice, but I'm not trying to hold it in one hand like I do my kindle. In fact, the weight may make it easier for me to handle because it stays put and does not slide around.

I think that's why ipad and high end tablet sales are down. At this point, most people who want one already have one and it's doing what they want/need it to. Upgrade cycle for tablets falls somewhere between those for PCs and smart phones. Apple can expect to have a nice bump when they put out bigger iPhones, but eventually growth will flatten out too. Smart phones do have the advantage of carrier subsidies so people are more inclined to upgrade.