Apple’s iPad sales for Q2 2014 fell below expectations. The company sold 16.35 million, which to anyone’s count is still a lot of iPads, however growth for the quarter was actually negative. What happened? Apple CEO Tim Cook shared some thoughts on the subject during yesterday’s financials conference call.
For last quarter in particular, he said the company reduced its iPad channel inventory compared to the same quarter last year, so sales were actually in line with the high end of Apple’s internal expectations.
Cook made other points to show why he, and Apple, remain bullish on the iPad’s future. He noted the iPad is Apple’s fastest-growing product in the company’s history. Apple has sold 210 million iPads since its introduction, almost twice the amount of iPhones sold in the same period of time.
Cook also reminded his audience that the iPad is strong in the enterprise market, citing a study that said 91% of the tablets that are activated in the enterprise are iPads. And he also noted that nearly all of the Fortune 500 companies use the iPad.
Cook mentioned Microsoft Office for the iPad, which may increase enterprise adoption of the iPad, saying Microsoft should have released the suite for the device sooner than it did.
Cook finished by saying tablet computing is still the future, saying, “I believe the tablet market will surpass the PC market.”
