Apple’s giant tablet, the iPad Pro, will not launch until November, but analysts have already looked into their crystal balls to find out how many units the company will sell. The first to publicly state an estimate was IHS. The firm believes the 12.9-inch tablet will be a hot seller, and they predict Apple will sell 2.8 million units this year (via AppleWorld).
“The current IHS forecast calls for 2.8 million iPad Pros to be sold in 2015,” Rhoda Alexander, director of Tablet and Notebook Research at the research group, told AppleWorld.Today. “Note that this figure factors in projected production limits. We expect initial demand for the product will be much higher, perhaps as high as five million units so expect Apple to enter 2016 with healthy backorders for the product.”
Market intelligence data from ABI Research, on the other hand, foresees the global installed base of tablets as “the next unexpected victim” as shipments of larger slate devices continue their way downwards.
From what they have seen so far, ABI has concluded that, for the first time in 2016, the installed base of tablets will decrease as growth from first-time buyers shifts to replacement purchases.
“The global installed base of branded tablets will peak around 373 million units at the close of 2015,” says Research Director Jeff Orr. “Led by North America at 48% of the installed base, the operating system mix is expected to be more balanced with 50% powered by Android, while 42% will use iOS.”
ABI Research Director Jeff Orr isn’t too optimistic about iPad Pro sales for this year and has two major reasons to underpin his half-million-unit estimate: First, the iPad Pro will be available only for a limited time (this year), possibly from the end of November; and secondly, the tablet is apparently targeted more at business customers than consumers. Orr told AppleWorld that the procurement procedures of businesses probably means a delay of 6–9 months before big orders for iPad Pros are placed.
