Apple Tablet Business Is In Serious Decline: Will They Take Notes From Surface Pro 3 Success?

When Apple released the first iPad in 2010, they proved their critics wrong. People really saw the benefits of having a tablet. Five years later, the tablet business is sinking and Apple is leading the dive. Digitimes reports that iPad shipments are expected to slip over 20 percent in 2015 for a major supply chain.

“Due to weak tablet demand in the market, the supply chain estimates that shipments for Apple iPad products will be down over 20% on year in 2015. Despite new products from Apple in 2015 including newly revised 7.9-inch units and a reported 12.9-inch iPad, shipments for iPads are expected to continue declining due to increased demand for large-size smartphones.”

Ironically, Apple has Samsung to blame for creating the “phablet” category of large smartphones in 2011. When Samsung initially released the Galaxy Note, everybody thought it would flop. Samsung’s Galaxy Note series has been so successful that Apple made its own phablet, the iPhone 6 Plus, which was released in September of 2014. The large-size smartphone has been a great success, but has eaten into much of Apple’s tablet market.

Perhaps Apple may want to look closer at their long-time rival Microsoft at how to revive their tablet market. Microsoft has realized that consumers want a laptop/tablet hybrid instead of just a tablet. The Surface Pro 3 is advertised as the tablet that can replace your computer and the statement is right on the mark.

We know that Apple is preparing the iPad Pro, and BGR reported on a leaked case from a French website that reveals more about the iPad Pro’s dimensions.

“We know the iPad Pro will have a display with a diagonal of roughly 12.9 inches, but what about the rest of the device’s dimensions? Nowhereelse.fr has obtained a leaked schematic that seems to show us the giant iPad’s full dimensions will be 305.7 millimeters by 222.6 millimeters with a thickness of just 7.2 millimeters.”

The release date for the iPad Pro remains a mystery. Expert Reviews talks about the conflicting release dates for Apple’s large tablet.

“There have been lots of conflicting rumours about the larger screen iPad. Last year, Bloomberg said that the iPad Pro would be launched in Q1 2015, although that’s clearly wrong given the current date … Reuters has stated that the iPad Pro will come out in September, and this is due to component shortages. Once again, we have to point out that we’ve never seen a true report about Apple products being delayed due to shortages.”

The most important aspect of the new iPad Pro is that it is expected to possibly run OS X, a feature Apple users have wanted on a tablet for years. Do you think the iPad Pro can turn around Apple’s tablet business? Let us know in the comments section.

[Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images]