2023, which has just passed, is a special year for Apple. This year has become a blank page for Apple in the iPad field, without launching any new products, and it is also the first time an iPad has stopped updating since its launch in 2010. The topic of # Apple's first iPad stop updating in 2023 # has made it to the hot search on Weibo. Over the past 12 years, Apple has been consistently updating and iterating its iPad products. The only iPad related product in 2023 was the USB-C version of the Apple Pencil, with the most recent iPad update in October 2022.
The iPad is an important product line for Apple, and although Apple has not provided an explanation for the reasons behind the disconnection, it has already revealed that Apple is adjusting its product strategy. According to foreign media reports, Apple is allocating research and development resources for the iPad to Vietnam and transferring New Product Introduction (NPI) resources to Vietnam.
According to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, Apple plans to conduct a major update to its iPad product line in early 2024 in order to boost declining iPad sales. Apple plans to launch new iPad Air and iPad Pro, both of which will have significant changes. It is reported that the iPad Air will provide two sizes for the first time, similar to the iPad Pro. The smaller models will continue to use the 10.9 inch size, but the larger models will be 12.9 inches, just like the larger iPad Pro. The iPad Pro model will be equipped with Apple's new M3 chip launched earlier this year, and will feature an OLED display for the first time in the iPad series, while the iPad Air will continue to use a standard display. In addition, according to IT Home citing South Korean source Yeux1122, LG Display has a higher proportion of screen supply for Apple's OLED version of the iPad Pro than Samsung Display. LG Display plans to mass produce OLED screens for Apple's iPad Pro starting in February 2024, with an estimated annual production of 6.2-6.5 million screens.
As the global tablet market shrinks and competitors face challenges, Apple's iPad business is also facing heavy pressure, and seeking change is the key to gaining new life.
According to the latest data released by research firm Canalys, global tablet shipments in the third quarter of 2023 were 31 million units, a decrease of nearly 7.2% compared to 38.4 million units in the same period last year. Although Apple's iPad ranked first in the world with 12.54 million units, it decreased by 12.8% year-on-year. In fact, since 2022, Apple iPads have shown a downward trend. According to TechInsights data, the total shipment volume of Apple iPads in 2022 was 63.5 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 3%.
According to Apple's financial report data, in the third quarter of 2023, Apple's revenue was $89.498 billion; Net profit was $22.956 billion, a year-on-year increase of 11%, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of decline in Apple's revenue. In terms of products, except for the iPhone, which achieved revenue growth, other hardware businesses have shown a year-on-year decline. In the third quarter, Apple's net revenue from products was $67.84 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 5.32% from $70.958 billion in the same period last year; Among them, revenue from iPads was $6.443 billion, a decrease of 10.19% from $7.174 billion in the same period last year. At the performance conference, Apple CEO Cook stated that the decline in the Chinese market was mainly due to the impact of exchange rate fluctuations, while at the product level, it was mainly due to the sluggish sales of Mac and iPad.
In addition, according to the latest data released by Canalys, in the third quarter of 2023, the tablet computer market in Chinese Mainland grew by 16% year on year. Among them, Apple's market share decreased from 38% to 31%, a year-on-year decrease of 5%. Huawei's market share increased from 15% in the same period last year to 24%, with a growth rate of up to 90%, and its shipment volume remained the top among Chinese brands in the quarter.
Furthermore, the news that Apple will be the first to launch foldable products on the iPad in 2024 is not accurate. According to IT Home citing foreign media macrors, Apple's products that will not be launched in 2024 include devices such as "iPhone SE 4 phone", "AirTag 2 tracker", "Apple Watch Ultra with Micro LED display", and the rumored foldable iPad/iPhone.
In fact, in addition to the iPad shutdown, Apple also experienced some personnel adjustments internally in 2023. According to Mark Gurman's report on December 9, 2023, Tang Tan, the current Apple Design Vice President responsible for iPhone and Apple Watch, will resign in February this year, which will lead to the company's "most critical product line restructuring." In addition, Apple's other highly anticipated hardware product, Vision Pro, has also made new progress. According to Wall Street News citing supply chain sources, the Apple Vision Pro headset will officially debut in the US market on January 27. Currently, Sony is the first supplier of the first generation Vision Pro silicon-based OLED, and the second supplier is an "anonymous Chinese company." The company will be the key to whether Vision Pro can expand production capacity.
According to foreign media reports, the second generation Vision Pro will begin sampling in the second quarter of 2024, and according to the schedule, it is expected to be released as early as the second half of 2025; And Apple is also synchronously developing AR glasses. The second generation of Apple's Vision Pro will have four models, two of which have been confirmed: one will be targeted at the high-end market like the first generation, and the other will be a budget version. Apple's goal is to compress the BOM (Bill of Materials) cost of the budget version to 50% of the first generation product.
According to IT Home, Guo Minggui, an analyst at Tianfeng International, once stated that the Vision Pro is Apple's most important product for 2024, with an estimated shipment of about 500000 units this year. Guo Minggui also stated that if users respond better than expected to Vision Pro, it will drive the industry to form a consensus that "Vision Pro is the next star consumer electronics product" and increase the corresponding supply chain stock price.
A reporter from Blue Whale Finance noticed that since early November 2023, Apple's stock price has been continuously rising and returned to above $3 trillion on December 5 local time. On the last trading day of 2023, Apple's stock price closed at $192.53 per share, a decrease of 0.54%, with a total market value of approximately $3 trillion.