The iPad family has witnessed a downward trend in sales, leading to reduced revenue in several previous quarters, with the Q1 and Q2 periods nothing to write home about. Fortunately for the company, the decline of its tablet lineup finally came to an end during the Q3 2024 Earnings call, and what is even more surprising is that this segment recorded a 24% year-over-year revenue increase, making it the largest compared to all categories this quarter.
Thanks to the launches of the M2 iPad Air and M4 iPad Pro, Apple has finally seen healthy growth in this segment.
To recap, the iPad category brought in $7.16 billion in the fiscal Q3 2024 period, up from $5.79 billion last year. This is a completely impressive result because even the iPhone, Apple’s king of revenue generators, reported revenue of $39.3 billion, which is down 1% compared to the Q3 2023 period. The only other segment that achieved double-digit growth was Services, bringing in $24.21 billion and marking a 14% increase compared to the same period last year.
As for how Apple managed to successfully avoid another quarter of reduced iPad revenue, it was thanks to M2 iPad Air It is M4 iPad Pro releases, both unveiled in May. While the new iPad Air models only introduced hardware upgrades to the mix, Apple did spice things up by introducing a larger 13-inch model, appeasing those who wanted more screen real estate on a tablet but weren’t willing to spend a ridiculous amount of money to get it. As for the new iPad Pro models, they represent the best of Apple’s design and engineering prowess.
The 11-inch and 13-inch versions are not only the thinnest devices ever made by the company, but also feature the industry’s first tandem OLED technology, along with M4 The chipset, which is mass-produced on TSMC’s second-generation 3nm technology, is another first. All in all, the new iPad Pro lineup is overkill for most users, but it will certainly be a treat for those who bought it for whatever work is done on it. It’s unclear whether Apple will see a repeat of the iPad’s success in the coming quarters, but we’ll keep our readers updated on the latest developments, so stay tuned.