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iPad sales have been stagnant for over a decade now, and they were bringing in 30B in revenue in 2012. You're correct that these devices weren't designed for some people — Which is why they aren't buying them.

And why I'm suggesting they start making what the people want.



iPad sales aren't stagnating because people don't want them.

They are stagnating because the market is saturated.

The iPad is a "private" device, so there isn't any social pressure to have the latest model. You're not taking it out in public multiple times a day.

The use cases are also more limited, so even when the software support ends, there isn't that much incentive to upgrade. Streaming services still work, browser works and the drawing apps work, no point in getting a new one.

I've owned iPads since the 2nd gen and haven't had a single one's battery die on me. Every time the device physically broke (after being handed down twice) before the battery died.


The iPad is kind of just too good in a way. My mum uses a 2014 iPad Air 2. I bought it second hand for very cheap years ago. It still works perfectly fine. It’s been dropped several times on concrete and somehow didn’t smash. There is very little pressure to upgrade it to a newer one.


The Surface Pro seems to be exactly what you want, it must be dominating the iPad in unit volume.


Right, despite my OP asking to be able to run iPadOS and macOS apps on one device depending on usage, what I must have actually wanted is a device that can do neither.


iPad learned from Surface. They can learn from upcoming Qualcomm Arm devices designed by x86 PC OEMs.


I mean, a Surface Pro starts at $800 (or closer to $1k for a proper setup) while an iPad $350. The vast majority of iPad sales likely come from the lower end. There is no way to compare their sales number.


The fact that it isn’t mentioned is probably a testament to how poorly it sells but Microsoft does have the Surface Go for $499 to compete with the iPad Air.


True, honestly I completely forgot it exists.


Funny, the iPad is exactly what I want and I just ordered my third IPad Pro.


> And why I'm suggesting they start making what the people want.

No it's what you want. The people have spoken. Nobody is buying Dex. Everyone is buying iPads.

There is little to no demand for turning the iPad into some tablet-computer hybrid.


That can be turned around to say that it's you that doesn't want it. Again, sales have been stagnant for a decade, so the people have indeed spoken.

The iPad already is a tablet/computer hybrid, it just so happens to be kind of bad at it, which is why articles like these keep popping up. Apple already has an OS optimized for pointer control, just allow macOS to load up with the right hardware connected.

If you (or anyone else) doesn't want that experience... Don't? Nothing would be a forced change for anyone that doesn't want it.


Stagnant for a decade with literally 55% of the global tablet market.

Seems to me that they are doing just fine.


stagnant nominally. 30B in 2012 is ~41B today.

so a rather stark decline.


Stark decline? This page doesn’t show a “stark decline”. If anything it’s showing remarkable consistency and slightly growing market share.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/276635/market-share-held...


is the iPad going from an inflation-adjusted ~41B in 2012 to 28B today not considered a stark decline in real revenue to you?


An Apple 2 was $1300 in 1977. An Apple MacBook Air can be bought at walmart today for sub $700. Does that mean that Apple has shown a “sharp decline” in revenue over their baseline product by nearly $5600 per machine in inflation adjusted revenue?

Does inflation adjusted revenue actually matter if cost to produce is lower and their market share is stable?


Total iPad revenue is down both nominally and in real terms. Profit margins are a percent of revenue, so real revenue decline does actually matter and not something a business wants. You'd be laughed out of a boardroom if you suggested otherwise.

Nobody was talking about company-wide revenue, nor cross-comparing products like a desktop to a laptop, this is a discussion on the iPad.

>“sharp decline”

Misquote suggest this is no longer a productive conversation.


> Misquote suggest this is no longer a productive conversation.

That was a mistake, I had meant stark and u intentionally mistyped it and I had quoted it already, but I agree that the conversation is not productive. However, its unproductive not because of the misquote, but of one party’s seemingly misunderstanding or perhaps avoidance of things like cost improvement factors, new competitors entering the market, and other consumer buying behaviors that might be involved when a new type of product is released to the public in favor a single cherry picked metric.


Give some privacy on those android tablets and I’d have one. But android is scary for that. iPad = tablet that doesn’t make me worry about being studied and spied on


Looking at the European coffee shops, I see plenty of Surface and Android tablets on my bubble, so certainly not everyone.


I use Dex




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