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Apple projected to sell more iPad Pros in a single quarter than all MS Surfaces ever sold (w/$200 profit on each)

A week after KGI forecast that Apple would sell around 2.5M iPad Pros this quarter (down from far bigger numbers before launch), RBC Capital Markets has predicted a more conservative 1M per month, suggesting around 1.7M units this quarter.

The company has also estimated that Apple’s average profit per unit is around $200.

Whoever is right, Business Insider notes that even the more cautious forecast puts the iPad Pro on-track to exceed total sales of the Microsoft Surface tablet range within its first three months.

Much may of course depend on the extent to which consumer sales supplement those of its primary corporate market. I was surprised to find that I did see a consumer market for it despite my own decision not to keep it. And while we may be waiting a while for pro apps, there’s a lot you can do today to make the most of it.

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Comments

  1. Well, I think they will definitely sell more of them than all Surface models combined. I have actually never seen Surface out in the wild.

  2. xprmntr - 9 years ago

    a lot of pro grade apps there with a lot of next level apps coming in the next year, I think most of all though is that people are very frustrated with the complete debacle of pencil and keyboard availability

  3. Well if from what I’ve been reading over the past few weeks about the Pro, Apple had better do something about all the flaws it has with the Pro if it does expect to sell 2.5 Mil this quarter though I suspect that most people buying them don’t know about the flaws in the Pro.

    • what flaws are you referring to? The only problem i HAVE with my pro is the charging. But who cares i soft reset thats it – it takes the iPad pro literally 4-5 second to fully boot.

      Please outline all the “flaws” seems like apparently they were a lot of them the ti did not know about

      • 89p13 - 9 years ago

        I’ve not encountered 1 flaw yet – Never had the soft / hard reset required after charging so this seems to be someone attempting to create a “gate” situation where none exists.

    • There’s only one iPad Pro flaw that I’m aware of and that’s the charging issue as others have commented on. You want to see flaw? Go and do a Google search on Surface Book flaws / bugs and you’ll definitely find your fair share. There are even reports of people returning them because they don’t want to be beta testers after spending over $2000 on a device.

  4. The company I contract for has begun a move to more recent OS & Laptops. Employees are given the choice in certain cases on a laptop (HP) or on a MS Surface tablet.

    The people that have opted for the tablet seem to be very divided about them. Some like them (as opposed to absolutely love them) and most find irritants in using them. From the poor login response (using the WIN logo as a thumb regognizer) to the slow and sluggish response time when handling large files (EXCEL & such), the problems highlighted abound.

    This tells me that APPLE’s comments on Surface’s attempt to make a tablet = to PC is deluded .. oh, sorry DILUTED right on the mark.

    I’m in the process of moving my small company from my Macbook Laptop to a tablet… I will be getting an iPad Pro to manage my small business. I don’t see the need to have the processing power of a laptop to do my thing but most of all…don’t what to carry the bulk.

    I know for having used it for a long time that Pages, Numbers and Keynote respond to my business needs and that the number of iPad apps available to handle the rest (like VISIO, Project management, etc…) are all there, work well AND have a snappy response feel.

    Laptops…….they are SO 1990’s

    • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

      Let us know how you get on with it when you’ve been using it a while – should be interesting to hear.

      • I have on my iPad Air & iPhone for the most part already. It works well except for the need to have a larger screen from time to time. As for useability, the iPad PRO will only give me more elbow room to play with. I don’t expect a huge ROI except that the HUGE screen.

    • I made the switch to iPad pro to carry out my small business. I love it.

      I still need a laptop/desktop at home for my freelance design/coding projects. but overall the iPad pro render them worthless when traveling.
      I keep my pc at home on 24/7 so if need be i just remote to it from my iPad and i am gold

      • Yep… that’s the plan too. I have my iMac @ home to help me with my poor vision ;-) but on the road… the iPad Pro will be taking over where my trusted Macbook had been.

    • bellevueboy - 9 years ago

      100% agree. That’s my observation too.

  5. scumbolt2014 - 9 years ago

    LOL Micro-MegaSuck can’t even keep a 2 year lead.

    • r00fus1 - 9 years ago

      Well, they’re down from losing a 5-year lead on phones (my colleague was testing our company’s enterprise app with Pocket PC phones back in 2002 – he complained about having dozens of bricked devices each month he had to get HP and OQO to return)

  6. woodypwx - 9 years ago

    My iPad Air is fine for consuming (video, feeds, emails, etc), but I can’t imagine how could I work on it. The SP4 with its proper OS would be much better in that case.

    • KevinQ (@ksuyen) - 9 years ago

      May I suggest a better solution? Get a full laptop: Macbook Air, Macbook Pro or Macbook. Either one is fine, good design, solid built and top performance.

      • woodypwx - 9 years ago

        I actually have a MacBook Pro retina 15″ (16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) and my main OS is Win10, even though it’s crippled on that HW (can’t switch GPUs => worse battery, just basic gestures on the track pad, OS X keyboard can’t be remapped). Mac OS X is beautiful, but its window management is crap, I’m missing many important apps for my work and the supported OpenGL is quite old.

      • Windows management in OS X is crap? Are you on drugs? It’s much, much, muuuuch better than in Windows itself. Windows management on Windows is very frustrating and very slow. I want to do things fast, not to to thousands clicks to do one thing.

  7. The guys over at Cult of Mac say otherwise;

    http://www.cultofmac.com/399048/microsofts-tablets-are-eating-away-at-ipad-sales/

    but we’ll never really until a year or two out.

    • r00fus1 - 9 years ago

      This research is actually by Strategy Analytics, a market analytics firm like Gartner.
      Of course, Gartner said (in 2011 IIRC) that by 2015, Windows Phone would outsell iPhones. LOL.

      Market research is often “buyer gets what they pay for”.

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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