Apple iPad Sales Might Dip For The First Time In History

By Kamal Nayan - 31 Dec '14 12:35PM

Annual iPad sales might dip for the first time in history as according to an estimate, Apple is expected to sell 68 million tablets in 2014 compared to 74 million units sold in 2013.

However, it is not just Apple that will post year-over-year decline. Rivals including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Google are also expected to post decline in sales in their tablet unit volume.

"Historically, Apple has counted approximately 35 percent of its iPad sales in the last calendar quarter of the year," said Jeff Orr, senior practice director of ABI Research. "Unless Apple can pull off a 32-plus million-unit quarter, sales for CY2014 will be down for the first year since the iPad launched."

Samsung is expected to see a rise in the sales of its tablets - 43 million 2014 this year, compared to 38 million shipped last year. Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, LG and Microsoft are also forecast to end higher the year higher, NBC News reported.

The report adds that among tablet operating systems, Android is making the lead with an expected 54 percent of branded tablets. iOS by Apple has fallen to 41 percent, while Windows 8 trails at 5 precent of shipments.

The report underscored that the overall tablet sales has been growing some 16 percent year over year to 194 million in 2015. It added that the growth trend would continue for the next five years and by 2019 nearly 290 million tablets will be shipped.