iPad shipments more than doubled in China in Q1

AppleInsider refers to Canalys' report claiming that iPad shipments are more than doubled year over year in 2023 Q1.

A report from Canalys seen by AppleInsider shows that shipments of the iPad more than doubled YoY in China for Q1 2023. The tablet market was particularly strong for the quarter, with 38% growth in total.
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The report says Apple's market share also jumped by about 13% to 38.4% YoY.

AppleInsider

Reference: iPad shipments more than doubled in China for Q1 versus 2022

CIRP report shows most popular iPad models

Consumer Intelligence Report Partners LLC (CIRP) publishes report on iPad model popularity.

9To5Mac

Popularity across models shows that iPad Pro combined is more popular than iPad base model. iPad mini is way behind other models.

Interesting fact is that more than half of iPads are with cellular making them connected on the go.

CIRP: Apple Sells Tablets, Too (paid)

Reference: Which iPad is Apple’s most popular for now?

Apple announces new iPad, iPad Pro and Apple TV 4K refresh

Apple made couple of hardware announcements today.

iPad

New iPad gets new form-factor, USB-C port and new color options. iPad is now powered by A14 Bionic chip. Touch ID is moved to Power button.

Interestingly front facing camera is using landscape placing.

Controversially new iPad supports first generation of Apple Pencil and will require dongle to pair and charge via USB-C.

New iPad supports WiFi 6 and 5G.

9th generation iPad is still on sale. 10th generation sees significant price increase comparing to previous model.

iPad Pro

New iPad Pro is powered by M2 chip. It now supports Apple Pencil hover which provides guidance on pencil position before it touches the screen which should provide better visual clues in various applications.

New iPad Pro supports WiFi 6E.

Pricing is unchanged for both iPad Pro models.

Apple TV 4K

Apple TV 4K refresh is now using A15 Bionic chip. Apple TV 4K now supports HDR10+. Storage is increased for both models, however, smaller storage model does not have Ethernet port anymore and also does not provide Thread support.

Apple TV Siri Remote now has USB-C port.

Apple shared video announcement of iPads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUKRkPKg5_U
Apple announces new iPad and iPad Pro

Apple also announced that iOS 16.1, iPadOS 16.1 and macOS 13 Ventura will be released on October 24.

Apple Newsroom:

References:

iPad will be able to act as Home hub on iPadOS 16, but only for “current features”

Initial beta versions of iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 had noticeable change in Home app. iPad was not eligible to act as Home Hub anymore.

Apple made a comment that iPad could be used as Home hub for "current features" while undisclosed "new features", probably won't be supported.

As of now, it seems that these "new features" are related to Matter standard which HomeKit is adopting.

Reference: iPads Will Work as Home Hubs in iOS 16, But Won't Support New Home Architecture

Swift Playgrounds 4 is released

Following iPadOS 15.2 release, Swift Playgrounds 4 is now available.

With Swift Playgrounds 4 developers can now build apps on iPad and submit them to App Store Connect. Projects created by Swift Playgrounds 4 could be opened by Xcode on the Mac.

Notably, apps created in Swift Playgrounds could only use SwiftUI as user interface framework. Projects could use SwiftPM for dependency management.

Apple Developer: Swift Playgrounds 4 now available

App Store: Swift Playgrounds

Release notes: Swift Playgrounds Release Notes

iPad sales keep growing in Q3

iPad sales are growing in Europe in Q3 while other tablet vendors struggle.

Tablet shipments in Western Europe shrank 20%, with 6.9 million units shipped. “In Q3 2020, tablets had an extraordinary performance as they filled a gap created by PCs shortages. They are now seeing a corrective decline as penetration within the primary userbase saturates,” said analyst Trang Pham.

Despite the contracting market, Apple appeared to be unaffected. In recent quarters, Apple has increasingly widened its leadership in the market with other tablet vendors. In Q3 2021, Apple saw a 33% year-on-year growth while the other top five vendors recorded double-digit declines.

Catalys

Reference: European tablet shipments in Q3 saw iPad as the only winner

iPad’s market share grows in declining tablet market

Apple's iPad is still quite popular device even in declining tablet market.

Global shipments of tablets clocked in at 42.3 million units in the third quarter, representing a 9.4% year-over-year decline, according to new data from analysis firm IDC. However, Apple's iPad is still growing in the contracting market.
Apple shipped an estimated 14.7 million iPad units in the third quarter, up from 14 million units in Q3 2020. The number marks 4.6% year-over-year growth in iPad shipments, and has netted Apple a larger 34.6% share of the tablet market.

AppleInsider

Also, Apple marks iPad (4th generation) released in 2012 as "obsolete".