According to Canalys, iPad shipments in the Chinese market plummeted by 29% in the first quarter of this year. As the leader of the tablet industry, the decline in market share of the iPad undoubtedly symbolizes a trend.
Many people have a question in their minds: Does this mean that tablets are no longer popular? In fact, in my opinion, the reason why iPad shipments have plummeted, these 3 reasons are very real.
First of all, the most critical factor that caused the iPad to lose market share was Xiaomi's return to the tablet business. To tell the truth, it is often the generals who lose the army who are the most courageous. Xiaomi is very clear that it is impossible to challenge the high-end iPad, but in the low-end market of the 2,000 yuan level, the various castrated iPad digital series are not competitive at all, as long as the video and audio experience is good enough to beat it.
With the success of the Xiaomi Tablet 5 series, Xiaomi has been soaring since the middle of last year and has become the third brand in the Chinese tablet market. At the same time, China's tablet market is also shrinking, with total shipments falling by 13% in the first quarter. The cake is shrinking, and new people are grabbing food, which has led to a sharp drop in iPad shipments.
Second, in my opinion, with the exception of the Student Party, the iPad is not irreplaceable for most people, and its real needs are very small. For office workers, computers are the real tools used to work and earn money, while the iPad is more like an entertainment tool. The only selling point of the iPad that cannot be copied is the paperless learning ecology, such as handwritten notebooks and so on.
I used to buy iPads for paperless learning, but when I got them, I found that I had no interest. It can only be said that learning is indeed a difficult and painful thing to persevere. Everyone wants to be better, but that doesn't mean everyone can do it. In the first two years, the demand for tablets exploded, which was caused by the special environment, and now sales have plummeted, just back to normal.
Third, the iPad has a longer lifespan than the iPhone, uses less frequently, and consumes more battery life. And most people take the iPad to chase dramas and read books, and the performance requirements are not high, even the A10 can meet the requirements. Unless consumers have higher productivity expectations for the iPad, such as initially replacing PCs, basically implementing mobile work, and so on.
That's why the iPad Air5 is equipped with an M1 chip with an exaggerated 8GB of memory. And the latest iPadOS 16 also introduced a front-of-desk scheduling mode, enhancing iPadOS's multitasking capabilities and making it more computer-like. If people's performance requirements for iPads are not high, then iPads cannot become consumer electronics that are replaced regularly.
In short, competition is intensifying, demand is weak, and life cycles are long. The above three points are the reasons for the 29% plunge in iPad sales. To be honest, I don't think the iPad has a strong advantage in other fields except for a relatively good learning ecology. For example, at a price of 2000 yuan, the Xiaomi Tablet 5 Pro with 120HZ high brush + 67W fast charging + 8 speakers is obviously more balanced and more comprehensive than the iPad 2021. If you have any other views on this, please feel free to discuss them together.