Apple Sells Tablets, Too

As Apple dominates the smartphone market and iPhones dominate Apple, we easily forget that Apple sells other electronic devices. Today, we look at iPads.

While Apple did not invent the personal computer or even the smartphone, it did essentially create the tablet market with the iPad. Introduced in 2010, it was the first large-scale mobile device with a touchscreen.

From a single model in 2010, Apple has launched several different models, in larger and smaller sizes and form factors. Today, Apple offers four models: 

• iPad, the latest successor to the original model launched in 2010

• iPad Pro, the most advanced tablet with a larger screen option

• iPad Air, a slimmer model with similar display size

• iPad mini, latest in a series of models with smaller screens

As the smartphone market matured and usurped some tablet use cases, the mix of iPads sold has changed. iPad users range from students using the lowest priced models to designers who replaced their paper portfolios with top-of-the-line iPad Pro models.

Pro models have dominated sales for some time, accounting for 44% of total sales in the quarter ending September 2022, The larger iPad Pro 12.9 inch model is slightly more popular than the smaller 11.0 inch model (Table 1).