New iPad Air Predictions
iPad remains the second-biggest product in the Apple product universe. It sits between the biggest (iPhone) and the original (Mac computers). Just this week Apple announced a new generation of one of the four model families - iPad Air.
The new iPad Air M4 models have a more advanced (but not the newest) processor, with the same form factor and display as before. The iPad Air fits between the original iPad, which runs on a 2-year-old iPhone chip, and the iPad Pro models that run on the newest M5 version of the shared laptop processor. The iPad mini runs on the pro version of last year’s iPhone chip.
In the past year, iPad buyers have gravitated to the Pro models. This is similar to what we have seen in the iPhone market, where iPhone Pro and Pro Max models are now more popular than the stalwart “number phones” that were the flagships for so long. The recently released iPhone Air is a notable miss relative to the other iPhone models. In contrast, iPad Air models play an important role in the iPad lineup.
In the past twelve months, iPad Air models accounted for 23% of iPad sales, just behind the basic iPad (24%) and trailing the leader - iPad Pro - which accounted for 43% of unit sales (Chart 1).