After much speculation about news on iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 release date, finally Apple unveils the upcoming devices, sparking discussion online about the possible effect of iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 to the falling tablet sales since 2013.
As the increase in iPhone sales worldwide continue, tablet sales is an entirely different story. The first series of iPads was released in 2010, where market sales based on Apple's fiscal year continued to rise on average. However, since 2013 the story changes. No longer is apple selling the iPads like pancakes, resulting to a gradual decrease in worldwide sales. Hopefully, Apple will increase tablet sales after iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 release dates.
In 2013, Q1 market sales was second highest recorded since 2010 at 22.90 million, which fell to 19.50 million during Q2, and 14.60 million on Q3, ending the years at 14.10 million on Q4. Although Q1 of this year is recorded the highest at 26 million, Q2 and Q3 presents another steady decline as in 16.35 and 13.28 million, respectively. Although it remains to be the best selling brand among tablets according to IDC, the continued fall of sales still poses a problem.
Online discussion on the decreasing sales reveals that there's a probability that the release of bigger iPhones could be a contributor of a clients opting to purchase the phone instead of the tablet. Although the iPhone 6 series was only launched a couple of weeks ago, this could indicate that people were either choosing between buying a tablet or a bigger phone - with the latter's performance exceeding the bigger device.
According to expert Jitesh Urbani of IDC on the recent news on iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 release date, "It was a response to the market as a whole moving to smaller tablets. And now that phablets are growing in not just screen size but also in market size, unless Apple carves out a special place for it, we expect sales of the Mini in particular to be cannibalised quite a bit."
iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 pre-order has begun, although the release date remains to be unannounced.
