Apple iPad Sales Slump: Is The Tablet Dying?

iPad Sales Slump: Is The Tablet Computer Already Dying?
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Apple has announced a big boost in revenue in its latest sales figures.

But there's one big problem: iPad sales are down.

Way down.

While the company posted revenues of $45.6 billion in the last three months - and a profit of $10.1 billion (both up on last year), sales of its cornerstone tablet computers were down from about 20 million in the equivalent quarter last year to 16.4 million in the last three months.

That's a drop of about 20%.

So why did Apple sell less this time around? Actually, CEO Tim Cook had a pretty interesting answer.

"We've sold over 210 million [iPads], which is more than we or anyone thought was possible," he said.

"It's interesting to note that that's over twice as many iPhones as we had sold in a comparable period of time and over seven times as many iPods as we had sold in the period of time."

He also explained that Apple had tried to send less iPads to manufacturers, so as to reduce unsold stock, and said that the tablet is doing better than ever with businesses and enterprise customers. He added that Microsoft's recent release of Office for iPad will further boost sales.

"I believe the tablet market will surpass the PC market," Cook added.

Meanwhile Apple's other numbers were good. iPhone sales were up to 43.7 million over 37.4 million in the same quarter last year, and it also sold 20 million Apple TVs. The real downer is the iPod, though, which though it's a declining business sol half as many this year as it did last. Goodbye, little music player. Sleep well.