Why Apple Continues to Lead the Tablet Market in 1Q16
An Insider's Tour of Apple in 2Q16: News, Highlights, and Trends
iPad’s falling shipments in 1Q16
According to research firm IDC, worldwide tablet shipments fell by 14.7% YoY (year-over-year) in 1Q16 to 39.6 million units. Apple’s (AAPL) shipments for 1Q16 stood at 10.3 million units, as compared to 12.6 million units in 1Q15. As shown in the graph below, iPad’s revenue fell 19% YoY (year-over-year) in the last quarter for Apple.
Apple’s share in this space also fell to 25.9% in 1Q16 from 27.2% in 1Q15. The other top players in the tablet segment at the end of 1Q16 include Samsung (SSNLF), Amazon.com (AMZN), China’s (FXI) Lenovo (LNVGY), and Huawei, with market shares of 15.2%, 5.7%, 5.5%, and 5.2%, respectively.
The International Data Corporation predicts that worldwide tablet shipments will fall by 5.9% YoY to 195 million units in 2016.
KGI Securities’ expectation for iPad shipments
According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, Apple will ship between 40 million and 42 million iPads in 2016. This amounts to a 16% fall YoY. However, analysts expect revenue to remain strong due to a rise in the average selling price of the iPad Pro.
In March 2016, Apple expanded its iPad Pro portfolio. It announced the launch of a 9.7-inch model with an A9X SoC (system-on-chip), Apple Pencil, and Smart Keyboard Support, among other features. The unit will be priced at $599. To ensure continuous product movement, Apple slashed the price of the iPad Air 2 by $100 to $399.
In the next part, we’ll stop for some of the biggest news: Apple’s pending iPhone 7 launch.
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