Thank Goodness for iPad

Even though iPads don’t get nearly as much time and attention as iPhones or even Macs, both AAPL investors and we here at CIRP are grateful Apple makes them. For us, they’re much easier to analyze, with only four basic models and a couple of sizes for two of them. Apple also doesn’t refresh them as frequently, so we can regularly make straightforward comparisons between quarters.

Investors like them, at least they did last quarter, because they grew the most of any Apple product. They also are the second largest product line, growing steadily, balancing out other products.

A brief look at the iPad product line helps illustrate its relevance. As we well know, Apple has a straightforward model lineup, with the premium Pro, near-premium Air, base model iPad, and smaller mini. 

iPad Pro remains the most popular model, with almost half of all iPad sales in the most recent quarter (Chart 1). This is about the same share of sales compared to the year-ago quarter.