Will the iPad hurt other Apple products?
Depending on which analyst or pundit you listen to, the astonishing sales of Apple’s new iPad table computer either may or may not have the effect of hurting the sales of Mac computers, or iPods, or whatever else.
Odd that no one thought of it (at least very loudly) during all of the hype leading up to the introduction of the iPad, but some folks think that there is a chance that all that money being spent on the iPad may mean that less money will be spent on certain other Apple products. Of course, at the same time, there are others that don’t think that will happen, according to a PCWorld story. The views of two of the more visible industry analysts specializing in Apple typify the varying opinions on the subject.
Piper Jaffrey analyst and pundit Gene Munster has been poking around in the numbers, of course, and has his opinions. He does not see that the iPad is hurting the sales of Mac computers (MacBooks were the big concern in some quarters) but that they could be hurting the sales of iPods. Apparently, Mac computer sales are up by a whopping 39 percent in April 2010 versus the same month in 2009. At the same time, iPod sales fell 17 percent in the same year-over-year period.
NPD Group analyst Steve Baker sees it differently. Baker says, “It’s way too early to see what long range impact on MacBook is going to be from the iPad. I think it’s unlikely that you would have an answer on that in the first month of product release of the iPad, especially in a month where you came out with new Macbooks. … Certainly with the iPad, you had an even longer spike because of the staggered release. And then you had new MacBooks at the same time.” Basically, he thinks that it is dangerous to make assumptions about the subject until there is more information available.
It is early days yet, in terms of what the Apple sales mix will be with the iPad thrown in. It is likely that the only real change will be higher overall sales numbers for Apple. The iPad is a totally new animal. It does not compete in any meaningful way with Apple’s other products, although it performs functions also available on MacBooks, iPods, and iPhones. Apple has created a new niche, and will almost certainly wind up with the rewards of that creation, with little perceptible loss in other areas, unless there is an industry-wide slowdown in laptop sales due to the effect of all tablets.
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