back to article PEAK iPAD: Slab looking a bit peaky, needs big biz to take more tablets

Sales of Apple iPhones are in rude health - but the Cupertino idiot-tax operation's iPad is sickly and in need of some tender loving biz customers. This is the diagnosis by Barclays analyst Ben Reitzes, who in a note to investor clients said that, unlike the Jesus mobe, the once super-soaraway fondleslab "clearly has the flu …

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  1. Ted Treen
    Trollface

    Again...

    "...Cupertino idiot-tax operation..."

    This is the stuff of Pulitzer prize winners, surely?

    1. FredBloggsY
      Holmes

      Re: Again...

      Seems a reasonable description. The huge Apple markups could be viewed, in a way, as being like a tax and people who pay it, voluntarily, could be viewed as idiots for doing so.

      And, really, "Cupertino-based idiot-tax operation" is much more descriptive of their business than, well, than 'Apple'.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Again...

        @FredBloggsY you're spamming this thread hard with anti-Apple sentiment. how much are Samsung paying you?

        http://delyan.me/08-01-2013/samsung-agency-is-buying-off-stackoverflow-users/

        1. g e
          Gimp

          Re: Again...

          Lol. Apple Cultist strikes again

          Always too ashamed or afeared to be known.

          Gimp. Natch.

      2. Don Jefe

        Re: Again...

        To be fair the markups only matter if the money is an issue to you. For some money is more scarce than for others. There are plenty of things to bitch about regarding Apple products, it does seem a bit petty to dwell on the price.

    2. Ted Treen
      Trollface

      Re: Again...

      5 thumbs down by 14:17?

      If the Cupertino company's description is valid, then there's a payload for them on the readership list of this article (or the list of those who have it read to them).

  2. LPF

    Good god I'm no maths genius..

    But if your percentage of a pie goes down , because that pie got bigger, its hardly time to close down the business.

    What would be useful is too know who makes the most money from tablet sales, not who makes 5p. Apple makes its money on the software as well as the hardware, nothing they sell is at a loss or a pittance. Jesus I can't believe someone has paid this analyst , and I use that term loosely for rubbish like this.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Good god I'm no maths genius..

      Apple make money selling the device and money from subscriptions and media you purchase. Samsung et al sell you a tablet today but no ongoing revenue. You buy an iPad and next time you buy one it will probably be another iPad - you buy a Samsung today and next time you could just as well buy a Motorola, Acer or ??? Android tablet. Think I'd rather be Apple in the longer term.

      Plus everyone is holding out for 'the new one' that is likely to be released any time soon - unless you were desperate you are hardly going to buy an iPhone 5 or iPad today when a new one may be announced in a matter of weeks now.

      1. FredBloggsY
        Meh

        Re: Good god I'm no maths genius..

        "Plus everyone is holding out for 'the new one' that is likely to be released any time soon - unless you were desperate you are hardly going to buy an iPhone 5 or iPad today when a new one may be announced in a matter of weeks now."

        But people were holding out for 'the new one' for the last few releases. Only, when it arrived it wasn't significantly 'new'. It was more like tweaked 'old'.

        Eventually, even the slow-of-comprehending realise they're being taken for suckers and realise they can 'think different(ly)'.

      2. P. Lee

        Re: Good god I'm no maths genius..

        >Think I'd rather be Apple in the longer term.

        The original mac was no less wonderful than the iphone but it didn't stop Apple spending years in the wilderness. It had a good idea which sold for a while but it priced itself out of the market.

        With slab sales fading early, it appears the iphone is Apple's current good idea. Mac hardware is getting worse as they switch from "being the best" (not necessarily the fastest, but the most appropriate solution for their target market) to maximizing service revenue and forcing repeat sales. Deliberately making your products awkward to use to get people to buy more stuff is not a strategy the market will tolerate for long.

        Apple do some nice stuff and they have a place - I just wish they would continue striving to be better rather than just milking the market to their own destruction.

    2. Ted Treen
      Facepalm

      Re: Good god I'm no maths genius..

      "...I can't believe someone has paid this analyst..."

      He obviously puts the "anal" in analyst...

    3. This post has been deleted by its author

    4. FredBloggsY
      Meh

      Re: Good god I'm no maths genius..

      "Good god I'm no maths genius..

      But if your percentage of a pie goes down , because that pie got bigger, its hardly time to close down the business."

      Hmmm... I think it says the sales volumes went down (by some percentage) and the total market went up (by some other percentage).

      That combination would mean that, as well as actual sales volume declining, market share (percentage of pie) declined even more. That's what happens when you live by hyping innovation and then don't actually make any for a few years (while others do).

      Fashion could play a part, too. What was once the hip-phone has become the grandmothers' and chavs' device of choice. That's how fashion works: when it becomes mainstream it's no longer cool.

      So, sharpen your fashion and "innovation" swords, flay about for a while, then get ready to feel their edge as the Wind of Uncool wafts in your direction.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I can't believe someone has paid this analyst

      Well, the analysts here at AnonWhinyTrollTech strongly believe that tablets should cost around 10 bucks, have a 52 inch 8K screen but fit in a pocket, have a battery life measured in months and be able to run Autocad and Matlab. Whoever maker fails to deliver this will be DOOMED.

      WE ARE ANALYSTS. WE HAVE SPOKEN.

    6. strum

      Re: Good god I'm no maths genius..

      Profitability is great. But if it's based on higher prices, which only devotees will pay, then that profitability is fragile. This analyst is suggesting (in terms) that prices based on effectiveness/usefulness are more soundly based, in the long term - especially when businesses are concerned.

      1. Don Jefe

        Re: Good god I'm no maths genius..

        Profitability and high prices are what keep companies around for generations. It is the companies that focus on delivering low prices that rise quickly, plateau and wither away until they are bought up piecemeal by someone else.

        Look at IBM, GE, Boeing, MS, they are basically immovable objects because of their high margins and prices. Their products haven't ever been 'all that' but they stuck to traditional good business practices and they're still in business, going strong and hiring daily.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Amateur hour at the Reg continues...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      PEAK REGISTER

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Nah, that happened sometime in the early noughties...

  4. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    Left Hand & Right Hand of El Reg?

    Today we get this...

    Yesterday we had this article

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/07/samsung_and_apples_unhappy_marriage_isnt_over_yet/

    stating that Samsung shipments of screens for the iPad rose to 4,1million in the quarter.

    Surely if sales were going through the floor this would not be true.

    So one hand is giving us a tale of woe and the other is saying that the size of shipments is going up?

    (I say going up because Apple AFAIK keeps as few devices in the supply chain as possible)

    So what is the real situation, the truth?

    As for a lack of MS Office being a problem then if the Android version is anything to go by, the Fanboi's are not missing very much. Apples apps can (AFAIK) already read and edit Office docs so I am starting to wonder what the people responsible for this article are smoking.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Left Hand & Right Hand of El Reg?

      The first article you linked says that Apple buys screens from LG and Samsung. They have been switching to using more Samsung screens, rather than LG screens, hence the rise in the number of screens shipped from Samsung to Apple.

      The total number of iPads sold has been decreasing (not just in terms of marketshare, but actual numbers sold), and that is not inconsistent with ordering more screens from Samsung.

      With regard to Office, the article says that there is no decent Office software available on the iPad. That has nothing to do with what is available on Android. The point the author was trying to make was mostly that iPads aren't as useful as they could be in the Enterprise, hence the fairly low sales.

    2. FredBloggsY
      Meh

      Re: Left Hand & Right Hand of El Reg?

      "stating that Samsung shipments of screens for the iPad rose to 4,1million in the quarter.

      Surely if sales were going through the floor this would not be true."

      I think the article was suggesting that Apple have moved more of their screen sourcing from LG back to Samsung. And, presumably some could be in preparation for another iIncarnation yet to arise?

    3. FredBloggsY
      Meh

      Re: Left Hand & Right Hand of El Reg?

      "As for a lack of MS Office being a problem then if the Android version is anything to go by, the Fanboi's are not missing very much."

      Agreed.

      People are slowly learning that whilst a flat slab of glass is fine for watching stuff and poking around the web a bit it's actually pretty cr** when coffee break is over and it's time to do some work.

      Slabs have their place, a big place, but they are not competition for most of the actual work that computers are used for. (They could have been a bit better than they are if basic computer facilities, such as a usable file system and the ability to interact with industry standard h/w and s/w hadn't been stripped out or locked away. But then the users wouldn't have been shut into the media supply garden, from where most of the money is harvested).

      1. Craigness

        Re: Left Hand & Right Hand of El Reg?

        "People are slowly learning that whilst a flat slab of glass is fine for watching stuff and poking around the web a bit it's actually pretty cr** when coffee break is over and it's time to do some work."

        Read the comments on any Surface-related story and you'll be told that a tablet which gives people Office, USB ports, filesystem access etc and the ability to do real work is exactly NOT what people want.

  5. JDX Gold badge

    Apple's four nearest rivals ... all grew at least more than twice the market rate.

    They had a space to grow into...

    1. FredBloggsY
      Meh

      Re: Apple's four nearest rivals ... all grew at least more than twice the market rate.

      "Apple's four nearest rivals ... all grew at least more than twice the market rate.

      They had a space to grow into..."

      And they've been growin.

      And Apple has a place to shrink into. And they've been shrinking.

      1. PJI
        Stop

        Re: Apple's four nearest rivals ... all grew at least more than twice the market rate.

        It's a matter of scale. I do not have any numbers to hand. But it's like risk of being hit by a meteorite doubling or even quadrupling: some number times very small is just a bit less small. Supposing one green widget is being sold for every 20 blue widgets, even if green widget sales are triple and blue widget sales go down by five per cent, blue widgets are still doing rather better, plus in this case the blue widgets earn money across the board, whereas many, perhaps most, of the green widgets are sold at a loss or very small profit, plus there is always the problem of retaining in the face of novelty and negative propaganda.

  6. Identity
    FAIL

    No Office? Ahem!

    Really, those folks should do some research. While it isn't Office, per se, there IS a FREE app called SmartOffice. Plainly, they've got their analysis wrong. IMHO, the reasons are 1) market saturation 2) high price compared with competitors and 3) falling behind in technology (though that could change in a heartbeat — stay tuned...)

  7. plrndl
    FAIL

    MS Office Missing?

    I suspect that if anyone were able to use MS Office on a fondleslab of any manufacture, they would not do so for long. A touch interface is simply not suited to any of the mainstrem uses of such software.

    Tablets are excellent for consuming media on-the-go, which is why they are almost universal amongst senior executives.

    If you're going to carry around a proper keyboard to use with it, you might as well stick with a laptop. Even then, creating a complex document would be a trial, and a spreadsheet would be virtually impossibe unless you have very tiny text and very good eyesight.

    Furthermore, if there was any real demand for Office-on-a-tablet, MS would be laughing rather than crying, over the Surface experience.

    1. Craigness

      Re: MS Office Missing?

      If you're going to write a document you'll be at your desk rather than on the couch. All you need is a USB keyboard and mouse (£15?) permanently in place on the desk and you're good to go.

    2. Mage Silver badge

      Re: MS Office Missing?

      Offices usually have desks rather than armchairs and settees. Also any serious size office the desks are cabled with ethernet. WiFi is ok only for half a dozen.

      Surface is a fail too in the office as a real laptop costs less!

      1. Craigness
        WTF?

        Re: MS Office Missing?

        Hatred of MS always stems from ignorance: the Office license on RT is for home use only! Surface is a consumer product, so you'd be working at your home desk on wifi, and you don't need to buy 2 devices.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Lack of Office a negative ?

    If you've used 2012 Office then lack of it is a selling point. Besides only a masochist would torture themselves using office on a 10inch touchscreen.

    1. User McUser

      Re: Lack of Office a negative ?

      "If you've used 2012 Office [...]"

      Then you're either from a parallel reality or using knock-off software.

  9. Flywheel

    Perhaps they should give it a new name

    iPAID ?

  10. g e
    Joke

    We mean...

    innovative thinking around new use cases that can drive sales, collect data for analytics, manage inventory better and lower costs

    B I N G O ! ! ! !

  11. steveking1000

    iPads and Office Software

    I worked for Kier until a couple of days ago. The senior management at Kier have all been given iPads in the last few months.

    As a result, many of the company's standard forms have had to be re-written. Group IT were not able to equip the iPads with software that would work with the Excel and Word forms required by the company's procedures. The execs probably never noticed, but the minions have spent many thousands of hours in the last few months re-writing their submissions so that the execs can see them and approve the next stages in the workflow.

    Email was working well, until another problem (sorry - I never got to see details) has meant that email access from iPads has had to be turned off.

    Now the main use case for the execs is to allow them to bypass the admittedly over-stringent web filtering that is present on the desktops.

    I suspect that the experiment with iPads will not last - which is a shame as this form factor has many good use cases out on their construction sites and in their other activities.

  12. BigFire

    LAUSD to the rescue

    Have no worry Apple, LAUSD is about to give you a boatload of money. Using construction bond (those are supposed to use for construction of school buildings, payoff in 30 years), the folks that educated me from Elementary through High School are going to buy every student in the system (many of them are either illiterate (all language) or non-English speaking) their shiny iPad that's obsolete in 3 years, at which point, over half would've already been broken or sold...

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Lack of Office...

    Spot on analysis as usual, because obviously the lack of Office has really hindered sales of the iPad until now haven't they!!!

    Serious question though - is the revenue generated from link-bait articles like this worth the reputational damage*?

    (* I'll leave it to others to argue whether you actually had a reputation to begin with)

    1. FredBloggsY
      Meh

      Re: Lack of Office...

      "Spot on analysis as usual, because obviously the lack of Office has really hindered sales of the iPad until now haven't they!!!"

      You might a well have said, with similar sarcasm / irony:

      "the lack of Office has really hindered sales of the XBox / Playstation"

      They all sell just fine without Office, of ciurse, but onky the iPad has misplaced pretentions as more than a toy / entertainment device. Toys are just fine without Office, but are a little inconvenient to have to use for actual work, in spite of what acolytes might wish to believe.

  14. mark l 2 Silver badge

    I don't think lack off Office is a deal breaker, if things go the way MS wanting them to go we are all going to be using office365 in the future and the full fat office will be a thing of the past and Office365 will work on an ipad or android tablet

  15. Slap

    Not enough in the package

    Of course the take up on new iPads has slowed and even declined. Why on earth would anybody spend money on a new tablet, which despite being better on paper, basically doesn't do anything that much better than old one.

    I, like most people I know with apple gear, bought into tablets with the iPad 2, and as far as the majority of us are concerned quite frankly there's not been another iPad model that does anything that much better than the iPad 2. Sure, there are the retina displays which, while nice, don't really offer that much in terms of user experience. The iPad 4 is faster, but faster for what? Gaming perhaps. To be honest nobody I know actually spends any time playing the kind of games that would benefit from the additional power that iPad 4 has.

    The only time I'd consider buying a new iPad is when it's been obsoleted, by which I mean that the latest OS is not available for it, and then only if I absolutely need an app which requires a higher system version than I can install. Or if the battery goes tits up - mine after 6 hours use is still showing above 60% so it's fine.

    The thing is that for most people once you've bought into this shiny new thing where the novelty has worn off, but know exactly what you use the device and it's integrated into your life as a need, then having to replace it with another one with no real advantage is almost a grudge purchase. This is pretty much how I felt when I finally updated my 4 year old iPhone 3G to a 4S. I needed to but I didn't want to.

    In conclusion, basically anybody who wants an iPad has got one, and there's not enough in the package for anybody with at least an iPad 2 to really warrant upgrading. Therefore sales are sagging. Obvious really.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not enough in the package

      "I, like most people I know with apple gear, bought into tablets with the iPad 2,"

      And there's the rub, people 'with apple gear' are obliged to keep buying apple gear, or they've wasted the money spent in the apple software site.

    2. PJI
      Happy

      Re: Not enough in the package

      Tend to agree. I switched to Apple stuff a few years ago. My MacBook is nearly six years old, reached its limit with Lion; but the fact is, it is as good as new to work with, supports full UNIX, X, MS Office and all the usual PC stuff (just much faster than any Windows kit). My iPhone is my one and only, being nearly three years old and still performing as required. People I know with iPads seem to hang on to them without feeling a need to "upgrade".

      It is, in a way, the penalty of making and supporting well designed, reliable devices to people with more sense than just to upgrade for some spec. change that offers them insufficient grounds. Everyone I come across with an HTC or Samsung or some Dell or Acer or similar laptop seems to feel they must change it every year, if not more often.

  16. Philip Lewis

    As I understand it ...

    ... we are comparing here a quarter in which no iPad was released with the same quarter 1 year earlier which did include a new iPad product release.

    I am not sure, but the inherent cyclicality (blame that other bloke) of iPad sales, dictated by the release schedule would seem to be the only culprit at which one might resonably point a finger. Anything else is pure speculation in the absence of any quantitative research suggesting otherwise. Analysts speculating now passes for intellectual effort - what a crock.

    Prediction: The next quarter which includes the availability of a new iPad, when compared to the same quarter the previous year will show a significant uptick in sales.

    News at 10: The Pope is a Rock Chopper.

    Fuck the tech. world has degenerated into an endless stream of mindless piffle spewed out by morons and repeated by intellectually doubtful churnalists on click-bait sites, all so that ad companies can feed us advertisments for crap we don't want. Really, we deserve better.

  17. Anthony Hulse

    Lack of innovation yes, but Office?

    Who cares about Office these days really? Apart from Microsoft and analysts obsessed with the idea of a Microsoft comeback of course.

  18. Robby-O

    Opportunity

    Good. Not because I hate apple, because I don't.

    I hope they do see that Business (at least, Business IT) is lacking confidence in using iPads for anythig more than recruitment.

    Staff want them, management want them (and get them anyway becauss hey, they're management) but they just haven't yet become a proven good fit for actually getting things done and replacing the beige old PC.

    It'd make my life if next time someone asked me for an iPad I could just say YES and give it to them knowing they'd be happy AND productive without just adding another device to my workload per employee.

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