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Goldman Sachs sees iPad demand slowing
Almost two years after the iPad launch, Goldman Sachs reports that demand is slowing down, just as the holiday shopping season begins. "While improving holiday demand into late November could certainly push the momentum in the other direction, we believe it is prudent to assume the iPad is facing some near-term demand challenges," writes Bill Shope. Shope believes price is the reason. Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet is much less expensive at US$199, for example. While many consumers are still willing to pay more for a quality product, there's no question price is a big driver in a market like this. Shope recommends that if Apple wants to keep demand for the iPad as high as it's been in the past, the company will need to get the price down. The iPhone's price dropped off sharply after introduction, but we haven't seen that same drop with the iPad. Shope also says that increasing adoption of iCloud and Siri integration would likely drive iPad demand back up. Shope does call the iPad's growth chart "remarkable by any metric," but his analysis says Apple must act soon to kick the iPad back out into the spotlight as competing tablets threaten to take it away.
Tim Cook: Tablets will outsell PCs (no kidding)
Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope has been talking to Apple's higher-ups lately according to BI (including COO Tim Cook), and that they're extremely bullish on iOS devices, even more so than they've been in the past. That's hardly surprising -- not only would you expect Apple executives to be excited about Apple products, but the iOS platform has been rocketing up anyway. Anyone betting against it at this point would be nuts. Still, Cook specifically is claiming that there's "no reason why the tablet market shouldn't eclipse the PC market over the next several years," according to Shope. And while it seems hard to believe that the much larger PC market could ever be threatened by tablets, that's exactly what's been happening lately anyway. Shope's report says he expects another big increase in iPad sales this quarter, which surely Cook and friends would agree with as well. This also means that we'll see some interesting announcements about iOS 5 next Monday for sure.
Analyst: Apple to be 'nimble' on iPad pricing, athletic on pommel horse
Apple's $499 starting iPad price tag is already lower than many people -- and a few competitors -- expected, but apparently Steve and company have left themselves a little wiggle room: Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope says that Apple told him it'll remain "nimble" when it comes to iPad pricing, suggesting that the price could drop if sales don't meet targets. That's not a hugely surprising thing to say, considering Apple's trying to be the first to achieve real success with a 'tweener device and strong pressure from netbooks, laptops, and smartphones threatens to collapse the space entirely, but a lot of people are taking it to mean some kind of drop is a done deal -- particularly since Apple cut the price of the first-gen iPhone by $200 just a few months after it launched and saw already-solid sales triple. We're honestly not so sure, though: Apple always tells investors that it's confident in how its products are priced but responsive to market changes, and it's not like a smaller price cut boosted the Apple TV into hit product territory. We'll see what happens after the iPad actually goes on sale -- we doubt we'll see any changes for another few months at least.
