For long, Apple had shied away from the mini-tablet arena, holding on to Steve Jobs’ vision that a tablet smaller than 9.7-inches wouldn’t be ideal. Eventually, Apple succumbed to the changing market dynamics and launched an iPad mini. Now, it seems that iPad mini is all set to overtake the iPad sales during 2013.
The interesting part is that originally, Apple had planned to focus on iPad tablet while pushing iPad mini as a secondary alternative to users who were giving in to rival offerings such as Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire. However, Apple may have to change its strategy since iPad mini is proving a lot more popular than iPad right now.
Ever since Apple launched the iPad mini, the sales of 9.7-inch iPad slates have significantly declined. Between December 2012 and January 2013, the sales declined by a margin of nearly 6 million, effectively ‘collapsing’ iPad sales. In the meantime, the iPad mini sales have experienced a healthy rise.
Now, NPD DisplaySearch has dished out projected estimates that during this year, Apple is all set to sell nearly 55 million iPad mini slates while the total sales of the 9.7-inch iPad tablets in the same time would be 33 million. In other words, iPad mini would overtake the 9.7-inch iPad to become the major tablet offering from Apple.
Interestingly, this goes directly against Steve Jobs’ claim that users would prefer a 9.7-inch slate because it had the perfect size. The year 2013 will conclusively prove this, if the numbers from NPD are to be believed.
Source: NPD DisplaySearch
Courtesy: Apple Insider
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