Why People Aren't Buying iPads Anymore

[Mivo]

Originally Posted by Graham

That article is from April 2012, so over two years ago there had already been over 17 million Kindle Fire sales.

It didn't mention sales; only 17M people who "actively use" a Kindle Fire. This may well include spouses, children, pets.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by Mivo

It didn't mention sales; only 17M people who "actively use" a Kindle Fire. This may well include spouses, children, pets.

True. But it mentioned sales too:

more than 10 million units have been sold by the end of the first quarter 2012

That was over two years ago, and before the Fire launched outside the US. I'm sure we could fish out more recent figures, but that's not relevant to the thread. I just wanted to note that Leebase's comment, if not a joke, was incorrect.

Graham

[hidari]

I like your post....but I must impose on a comment or two.... or one.. My Partner has an Ipad III and I have a Nexus 10....Though the nexus 10 is a bit old in today's market... I reckon it would do well against most tablets in performance, etc....

for ereading... the Ipad mini and nexus 7 are both excellent..

Originally Posted by twowheels

You've actually heard somebody say that they carry an iphone to impress people? Somehow I suspect this is a projection of your interpretation.

I {as a hobbyist programmer since 3rd grade, professional Software Engineer for 20 years, Linux user since 1994 (except for when work requires otherwise), Apple hater since the Mac SE (who finally gave up the anti-apple-religion), and generally tech savvy person} will only buy an iPhone (given the current state of affairs), and I carry it in an ugly case as I don't care who sees it or doesn't.

Why? Because it "just works", works well, fits my needs, and is generally high quality both in hardware, OS, and the apps.

I had an Android phone as my first smartphone... hated it. My daughter has an Android phone w/ KitKat... it's much better, but I still wouldn't want it. I have an Android Tablet... nobody will use it, we all fight over who gets to use the much older iPad.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by hidari

for ereading... the Ipad mini and nexus 7 are both excellent..

They are indeed (I have both). And the Nexus 7 is half the price of the iPad. I can really see no reason to buy the iPad Retina Mini for reading when the Nexus is so much cheaper, although there may of course be other perfectly valid reasons for wanting the iPad.

[taosaur]

Originally Posted by twowheels

I'm not sure where you live, but given that you specified the price in € I'm going to assume that you're not near me. Not sure how the resell market is there, but around here used Apple devices go for far more than almost any other brand. I work with a guy who buys and sells phones and tablets all of the time and stays on the cutting edge by selling them while they're still fairly new and hardly takes a loss on them at all, especially iOS devices.

Edit: Resell? Resale? Even reading the dictionary I can't seem to decide which is right here. I'm settling on resell. :-)

There was a Gizmodo article last year touting resale value as a reason to stick with Apple, and an excuse to upgrade every year. I'm not sure it makes sense to count on resale value defraying your costs, and obviously it's moot if you plan on using the thing until it's dead, but it's true that used Android tablets aren't worth much. I just gift them.

It seems like I get about two years out of a tablet before something shows up on the market that catches my eye. I'm coming up on two years with my Nook HD+, and the new Nvidia Shield tablet is looking quite nice. Last time I upgraded for a much nicer screen, whereas this time it's sheer horsepower and reportedly great speakers (for a tablet). It would also be able to stream games from my PC because I have a newer Nvidia graphics card, but I can't see using that feature much.

Can't say I'd consider an iPad unless my income doubles unexpectedly

And yes, like HuffPo I'd chalk up declining iPad sales to the growing popularity of the Fire and Nexus brands over the last couple years, as well as a degree of market saturation. There was a time not long ago when someone wanting an iPad wouldn't even consider other devices, or think of the iPad as being in a category called "tablets," as opposed to being a category unto itself. Times have changed.

ETA: Touchscreen laptops and convertibles are probably taking a small bite out of the overall tablet market, too.

[Jack Tingle]

I always laugh when this inevitably happens.

My father-in-law once wanted to invest in a workstation vendor. (Yes, this was long ago.) He wanted my opinion, since I'm an engineer and worked on workstations. Sales of workstations were booming, going from thousands per year to tens of thousands per year in short order. I told him to not bother, that the market was about to saturate and sales would drop to replacement level. He was surprised. I pointed out to him, that there were only a quarter of a million people in the US who needed these systems. They were selling at a rate that would replace the previous generation with a newer, much more satisfactory generation in a year or so. The rate of sales was skyrocketing. Sure enough, after the workstation industry had sold a hundred thousand of the first generation and a quarter million of the second. Poof! the market dropped to about 10% or so of the previous rate of sales.

Also works for tablets. Or any other disruptive new technological device. Accelerating sales of popular device->Over expansion of manufacturing->Market saturation->Dramatic drop in sales to replacement levels->Large percentage of manufacturers go out of business.

[Xanthe]

It's the little things that'll forever keep me from getting an iPad. For example, an online gaming site that I frequent requires Java - which the iPad doesn't do. Ditto the hoops you have to jump through for Flash items.

Yes, yes, I know they're not included for security. But you know what? I've been using Windows for decades now and I've never had an infection via those vectors because I use commonsense.

[ProfCrash]

Yeah, the java thing is a pain in the wazoo. Good news is that Zynga figured it out and there are ways to play many of their games on the iPad. I am currently addicted to Castleville Legends, I only play on the iPad.

(shrugs)

[taosaur]

I actually appreciate the major mobile platforms pushing developers away from Flash and Java, forcing them to adapt to HTML 5.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Jack Tingle

Or any other disruptive new technological device. Accelerating sales of popular device->Over expansion of manufacturing->Market saturation->Dramatic drop in sales to replacement levels->Large percentage of manufacturers go out of business.

The trick is recognizing the investment opportunity just BEFORE the thing proves disruptive....<sigh> I haven't quite got that down.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by taosaur

I actually appreciate the major mobile platforms pushing developers away from Flash and Java, forcing them to adapt to HTML 5.

While I get (and agree) that HTML5's open standard is the better way to go than proprietary plugins like Flash for multimedia content on the web, and while I appreciate the chicken-and-egg necessity of "adopt HTML5 first, eliminate codec fragmentation later," I don't see what HTML5 has to do with Java, in the sense of a multiplatform, full-fledged development platform.

Sure, it can eliminate the need for Java-based media viewers, just like it does for Flash-based ones, but it offers no alternative for how to run your Java apps without a JRE, or more correctly, it offers no alternative for Java app developers to port their work over to.

IOW, IMHO:
Killing Flash support on a platform to encourage HTML5 = reasonable disruption.
Killing Java support on a platform to encourage HTML5 = too disruptive, if you use any Java apps.

p.s. "disruptive" in this context is not as positive a thing as in the context that Jack Tingle used it above...."