KGI analyst Kuo sees iPad shipments declining 30% this year

Connected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities had predicted that Apple would report 73 million iPhones shipped during the fourth quarter of 2014. It was about as close as an analyst could hope to get to the actual 74.5 million iPhones that Apple said it had sent out from October through December. Now, the analyst is turning his attention to the Apple iPad and things do not look so rosy when it comes to Apple's tablet.With tablet sales suffering from the competition offered by larger-screened smartphones, and the lack of demand for upgrades similar to the one that drives smartphone sales, Kuo sees Apple shipping 30% fewer iPads in 2015. If he is correct, it would be the sharpest year-over-year decline in iPad history.

For the first half of this year, the analyst expects Apple to ship 18 million iPad units. and believes that the company will struggle to get 45 million out the door in 2015. Last year, Apple shipped 63.4 million iPads keeping it on top of the tablet rankings for the year.

Despite all of the speculation surrounding a 12.9-inch Apple iPad Plus/Pro, Kuo doesn't see such a device adding much to Apple's iPad shipments "anytime soon."

"Contribution to shipments of 12.9-inch debut limited; retail promotion of existing models may not work well. While we are confident a new 12.9-inch iPad model can create improved user experience with enhanced productivity in the long term, we don’t anticipate it will contribute meaningfully to shipments momentum anytime soon, since its commercialization may fall behind expectations, leaving limited time for shipping… Moreover, we are conservative on promotion, likely executed by Apple (US) or retailers, of existing products due to the lack of innovative applications."-Ming-Chi Kuo, analyst, KGI Securities

source: 9to5Mac via BGR

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