Advertisement
U.S. markets closed
  • S&P 500

    5,254.35
    +5.86 (+0.11%)
     
  • Dow 30

    39,807.37
    +47.29 (+0.12%)
     
  • Nasdaq

    16,379.46
    -20.06 (-0.12%)
     
  • Russell 2000

    2,124.55
    +10.20 (+0.48%)
     
  • Crude Oil

    83.11
    -0.06 (-0.07%)
     
  • Gold

    2,254.80
    +16.40 (+0.73%)
     
  • Silver

    25.10
    +0.18 (+0.74%)
     
  • EUR/USD

    1.0782
    -0.0012 (-0.11%)
     
  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.2060
    +0.0100 (+0.24%)
     
  • GBP/USD

    1.2627
    +0.0005 (+0.04%)
     
  • USD/JPY

    151.3370
    -0.0350 (-0.02%)
     
  • Bitcoin USD

    69,961.34
    -839.55 (-1.19%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • FTSE 100

    7,952.62
    +20.64 (+0.26%)
     
  • Nikkei 225

    40,369.44
    +201.37 (+0.50%)
     

Holiday quarter likely less than joyful for Apple iPad sales

The Apple of your eye: Outlook good for Apple earnings report (Part 7 of 12)

(Continued from Part 6)

Apple taking a number of steps to revive iPad business

The holiday quarter between October and December is considered the best quarter for business, especially for mobile device companies. People often gift each other smartphones or tablets at the holidays.

Apple (AAPL) is trying its best to revive its tablet business with the introduction of its new iPads . Representing minor updates at best, Apple launched the upgraded iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 a few months ago. But, Apple also launched a SIM card for these new iPads . The SIM card allows users to switch between carriers with a user-friendly interface on the iPad itself.

Currently, AT&T (T), T-Mobile (TMUS), and Sprint (S) are supporting Apple’s new SIM card. Verizon (VZ) isn’t supporting it. Apple also forged a partnership with IBM (IBM) a few months ago to penetrate the enterprise market for iPads.

iPad sales could disappoint yet again in fiscal 1Q15

Despite its attempts, Apple may not be able to resurrect iPad sales, which you can see in the above chart. iPad sales could actually see their first year-over-year decline . According to Apple, the main reasons for the declining sales are that people hold on to iPads longer than phones and 50%–70% of buyers are first-time buyers.

Apple had an excellent holiday quarter last year when it sold 26 million iPads. But a positive year-over-year comparison will be difficult to achieve, and that means Apple is likely to disappoint on iPad sales yet again.

Continue to Part 8

Browse this series on Market Realist:

Advertisement