Does iPad’s Longevity Hurt Apple’s Tablet Sales?

An interesting article by Robert Cringely from BetaNews seems to highlight that iPad’s longevity is actually causing a drop in company’s tablet sales, and the reason nobody seems to talk about is “they don’t wear out” (via MacDailyNews). The author claims that Apple can’t solve the problem of lower than expected sales by merely introducing new iPad models as it won’t be enough because he has had a hard time imagining what would make him replace his old iPad.

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Cringely says that his three sons share an Apple iPad given to them by their grandmother, which she bought a couple of years ago as a top-of-the-line 64GB Retina display model. “The boys run it hard on car trips where it functions as a hotspot and under covers in their bedrooms along with a couple iPhones, iPod Touches, various Kindles and some cheaper seven-inch Android tablets” he writes. 

“In all we have probably a dozen touchscreen devices in the house but most of the action takes place on iPhones or that one iPad. Great for Apple, right? Not really. Apple’s iPad sales are dropping you see and the reason nobody seems to talk about is they don’t wear out.

Apple and the carriers originally expected iPads to last about as long as phones or maybe a little more. But they don’t fail that quickly. At best (or worst depending who you are) iPads may follow a PC three-year replacement cycle. But they haven’t been around long enough to really test that so the big fear at Apple is they’ll last even longer than PCs.”

On the contrary though, we believe Apple continues to satisfy and delight its casual customers and die-hard fans alike, and the durability and longevity of its products is definitely not a bad thing at all. What do you think?

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