iPad Pro Outsold Surface Tablet In Q4 2015

Latest market estimates from IDC show that Apple’s first truly giant tablet, the iPad Pro, outsold the Microsoft Surface tablet despite the fact that it wasn’t even released before the middle of the previous quarter. The estimates peg iPad Pro sales at 2 million units against 1.6 million units for Surface in Q4 2015.

The iPad Pro turned out to be a big winner in an otherwise falling tablet market which is actually down 10 percent year-over-year. That being said the performance of Microsoft’s Surface tablet has to be recognized as well.

Even though it didn’t quite manage to sell as many units as the tablet that arrived later in the year, Microsoft’s Surface sales posted a 29 percent year-over-year improvement, which goes to show that the companies betting on larger tablets might finally be on to something.

The accompanying report mentions that Microsoft actually sold significantly more units of the expensive Surface Pro tablet as opposed to the cheaper Surface 3. Clearly the market is responding to hybrid tablets that feature detachable keyboards as viable alternatives to carrying around a laptop.

“With these results, it’s clear that price is not the most important feature considered when acquiring a detachable — performance is,” said Jean Philippe Bouchard, the research director for tablets at IDC.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Tablets
Tags: apple, iPad Pro, Microsoft, Microsoft Surface