A report from a few days ago revealed that Apple’s iPad tablet is still maintaining their lead ahead of the competition. However the report makes note that despite the lead, Apple is still seeing a year-over-year decline. Now according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, he seems to think that the iPad’s decline will actually be rather steep this year.Kuo has estimated that iPad shipments in 2015 could decline by as much as 30%, but what about Apple’s rumored iPad Pro? Wouldn’t that contribute to the iPad’s demand, shipment, and sales? Perhaps in the future, but as far as the short-term numbers are concerned, Kuo does not believe that the device will have too significant of an impact.
According to Kuo’s note to investors, “Contribution to shipments of 12.9-inch debut limited; retail promotion of existing models may not work well. While we are confident a new 12.9-inch iPad model can create improved user experience with enhanced productivity in the long term, we don’t anticipate it will contribute meaningfully to shipments momentum anytime soon.”
That being said we can’t say we’re too surprised to learn that iPad shipments could be declining. After all tablets tend to have a slower upgrade cycle compared to phones, which means that instead of upgrading yearly, customers could opt to upgrade every 2-3 years which means that tablet manufacturers will have to constantly rely on new customers.
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