Apple may be hoping that the iPad Pro can help turn around its flagging tablet sales, but according to a new report sales are off to a somewhat disappointing start — with just 49,000 units selling in the first month in Apple’s much-emphasized China region.
It is likely that the high price of the device, which starts in China at $908, is the reason for the lower-than-expect sales. It may also have something to do with the relative scarcity of the device, however.
Interestingly, today’s report — which comes from the hit-and-miss news outlet Digitimes — doesn’t mention how many sales other iPads achieved in their first month, but rather compared it to shipments. The iPad Air 2 achieved shipments of 557,000 in its first month, while the iPad mini 4 saw 92,000 shipments during the same four-week period.
Comparing shipments to sales isn’t an entirely fair comparison, although unlike companies like Samsung, Apple tends to not overestimate when it comes to shipments versus sales. Either way, it is reported that considerably fewer iPad Pros were shipped during the product’s first month on sale.
China is, of course, only one market — although it’s a market that Apple has placed considerable emphasis on during 2015. During Sunday’s 60 Minutes episode, Tim Cook again confirmed that he thinks China is set to become Apple’s biggest market over the next few years. Cook has previously stated that Apple designs its new products with Chinese consumers in mind.
Not all iPad Pro news is bad, though: some market watchers still expect the worldwide sales of the super-size iPad Pro to reach 3 million units in its first three months of launch, which would generate revenues of $2.4 billion.
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