The iPad Decline is Unsurprising
It’s been a very quiet year for the iPad, so the lower iPad sales are even less surprising. Apple’s most recent iPads are now a year old, and many of its more popular models, like the iPad Air, have been on the market for 18 months or more.
During the earnings call, Apple also pointed to a “difficult compare” from the year-ago quarter that resulted from supply disruptions in Q3. Supply constraints in the spring of 2022 made it difficult for Apple to fulfill iPad orders during that quarter, resulting in “pent-up demand” in the fourth quarter that inflated those numbers.
Apple added that “iPad continues to attract a large number of new customers to the installed base, with over half of the customers who purchase iPads during the quarter new to the product,” but also said that revenue performance will “decelerate significantly from the September quarter due to a different timing of product launches on iPad.”