iPad Shipments To Reach 20 Million Units In The Fourth Quarter
Apple’s recently released iPad Air will likely enjoy good sales as the holiday season draws near; not to mention that yesterday the Cupertino based giant also decided to quietly release the Retina iPad mini (and it is exclusive to the Personal Pickup service at the moment) and it too is expected to sale lots of units, especially since an iPad mini with a Retina display has been on many consumer’s top list. The release of both the iPad Air and the second generation iPad mini likely means that Apple’s overall iPad shipment will dramatically increase (analysts are expecting a jump of approximately four to six million units) during the fourth quarter of the year, compared to this year’s third quarter.
DigiTimes cited “sources with Taiwan’s supply chain [...]” when reporting that Apple’s global tablet shipments might reach 18 to 20 million units during this year’s fourth quarter, which means an increase of about 42% over the 14.1 million tablets that Apple shipped during this year’s third quarter. The reports claims that Apple shipped 48.2 million iPads during this year’s first three quarters; with the expected iPad shipments from the next quarter, Apple could ship 66.2 to 68.2 million iPad units worldwide this year.
However, even though these are great numbers, the report says that it is only a 4% growth over last year’s numbers, which actually marks the lowest year on year growth of all “first tier tablet vendors”. If this estimate will turn out to be accurate, then Apple’s iPad growth rate this year is also behind the tablet market’s overall year on year growth of 50% in 2013. The report also says that the worldwide tablet market is estimated to see an increase in yearly shipments from 140 million last year to 220 million this year.
Last week, Gene Munster from Piper Jaffray predicted that Apple may sell 2.5 million iPad Air units, even 3.4 million units during its first weekend of availability, which would be better than the 3 million iPad units that Apple managed to sell during the same period last year. On the other hand, we recently told you about a report from International Data Corporation (IDC) released at the end of October that claimed Apple’s share in the global tablet marked dropped to its lowest point during this year’s third quarter, decreasing by 11% from the third quarter of 2012. IDC’s report also notes that Apple’s iPad market share decreased to 29.6% during this year’s third quarter from 40.2% during last year’s third quarter. IDC estimates that Apple will manage to turn the tide in its favor now that both the fifth generation iPad and the second generation iPad mini with Retina display are available.
IDC analyst Jitesh Ubrani said “With two 7.9 inch models starting at $299 and $399, and two 9.7 inch models starting at $399 and $499, Apple is taking steps to appeal to multiple segments [...] While some undoubtedly hoped for more aggressive pricing from Apple, the current prices clearly reflect Apple’s ongoing strategy to maintain its premium status”. Are you excited about the recently released iPad Air and second generation iPad mini?
