Microsoft eating into Apple's tablet sales
As far as news goes, this really shouldn't surprise anyone. Apple, like Microsoft before them, is the architect of their own destruction.
I argued long ago that Apple never should have released the iPad Mini. Not because I thought it would't sell, but because I KNEW it would and then both cannibalize their iPad sales and drive down the perceived value of their tablets (and tablets in general). And what do you know? The iPad Mini was a smashing success and it cannibalized far more regular iPad sales than Apple anticipated and made iPad buyers less willing to fork out more for tablets.
I rest safe in the knowledge that no one can actually prove things would have been better or worse without the iPad Mini. But, seriously, I suspect in the long terms while they may have had fewer iPad sales overall, they probably would have been more profitable.
Which bring us to the biggest flaw of the iPad Pro as a consumer device. It's price. It is a sad attempt to drive their bottom line back up. But, with the iPad Mini it is already hard enough to get iPad Air sales. Convincing regular consumers to spend 3x as much on an iPad Air is a tough sell.
Of course, that alone doesn't explain why Microsoft is eating into Apple sales or why Android is #1 in tablets.
The problem there is the market maturing I suspect. What I mean is not that the consumers are maturing. But rather, the landscape in general for mobile devices is beginning to be impacted by its own success. People have believed for some time now that a traditional PC wasn't needed for most people anymore. But, while that opinion was forming, those people still had laptops and desktops sitting around to fall back on. The longer this belief went on, the more of those devices went away without being replaced.
We're at a turning point I think and the average consumer is starting to hit the reality of life without that traditional computer. And when they find their phone or tablet doesn't suit their needs, they are finding it is critical functionality they are missing like the ability to write a school report or resume and expectations for these devices are growing. The iPad Pro and new Google hybrid are an answer to this I think, and not specifically to something like the Surface Pro.
To that point however, I don't think either goes far enough, and I think both Android and iOS are being shackled by their pasts. Using iOS and Android respectively on tablets/hybrids I think is proving to be a bad decision. Productivity apps exist on these platforms, but they don't meet true productivity needs because they are designed with touch first tablets in mind and not keyboard and mouse. But, I don't see a lot of developers investing in fixing up these short comings to accommodate these new devices. The phone industry is so much larger than the tablet industry now that developers working on iOS and Android will target phones first, tablets second (if even needed) and hybrids last. Devs go where the money is.
So, Microsoft is eating into Apple's sales because their hybrids are currently the best suited devices to deal with the areas where mobile OS's fall short. Android gets a stay of execution on tablets because of their price point and popularity, but if the situation doesn't improve I expect Android could lose market to MS over time as well.
I don't expect any of this to mean anything in the short term for Microsoft's phone offerings. The vast majority of these Windows tablets are likely being sold to iPhone and Android users. They like their phones, they just don't like trying to use their phone OS's for productive work.
I argued long ago that Apple never should have released the iPad Mini. Not because I thought it would't sell, but because I KNEW it would and then both cannibalize their iPad sales and drive down the perceived value of their tablets (and tablets in general). And what do you know? The iPad Mini was a smashing success and it cannibalized far more regular iPad sales than Apple anticipated and made iPad buyers less willing to fork out more for tablets.
I rest safe in the knowledge that no one can actually prove things would have been better or worse without the iPad Mini. But, seriously, I suspect in the long terms while they may have had fewer iPad sales overall, they probably would have been more profitable.
Which bring us to the biggest flaw of the iPad Pro as a consumer device. It's price. It is a sad attempt to drive their bottom line back up. But, with the iPad Mini it is already hard enough to get iPad Air sales. Convincing regular consumers to spend 3x as much on an iPad Air is a tough sell.
Of course, that alone doesn't explain why Microsoft is eating into Apple sales or why Android is #1 in tablets.
The problem there is the market maturing I suspect. What I mean is not that the consumers are maturing. But rather, the landscape in general for mobile devices is beginning to be impacted by its own success. People have believed for some time now that a traditional PC wasn't needed for most people anymore. But, while that opinion was forming, those people still had laptops and desktops sitting around to fall back on. The longer this belief went on, the more of those devices went away without being replaced.
We're at a turning point I think and the average consumer is starting to hit the reality of life without that traditional computer. And when they find their phone or tablet doesn't suit their needs, they are finding it is critical functionality they are missing like the ability to write a school report or resume and expectations for these devices are growing. The iPad Pro and new Google hybrid are an answer to this I think, and not specifically to something like the Surface Pro.
To that point however, I don't think either goes far enough, and I think both Android and iOS are being shackled by their pasts. Using iOS and Android respectively on tablets/hybrids I think is proving to be a bad decision. Productivity apps exist on these platforms, but they don't meet true productivity needs because they are designed with touch first tablets in mind and not keyboard and mouse. But, I don't see a lot of developers investing in fixing up these short comings to accommodate these new devices. The phone industry is so much larger than the tablet industry now that developers working on iOS and Android will target phones first, tablets second (if even needed) and hybrids last. Devs go where the money is.
So, Microsoft is eating into Apple's sales because their hybrids are currently the best suited devices to deal with the areas where mobile OS's fall short. Android gets a stay of execution on tablets because of their price point and popularity, but if the situation doesn't improve I expect Android could lose market to MS over time as well.
I don't expect any of this to mean anything in the short term for Microsoft's phone offerings. The vast majority of these Windows tablets are likely being sold to iPhone and Android users. They like their phones, they just don't like trying to use their phone OS's for productive work.
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