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Here’s what Apple users do with their old iPads

Last week we saw a report from CIRP revealing that a growing percentage of iPad owners are waiting 3 years or more before upgrading their tablets. In a follow-up study, CIRP answers what those users are doing with their old iPads.

CIRP’s recent report on the iPad upgrade habits of Apple users showed that 40% of respondents said they are waiting 3 years or more before buying a new Apple tablet. That number is up 4% from 2023 and 12% from 2022.

Now in today’s report, CIRP shares what iPad users are doing with their old tablets once they upgrade to a new iPad – and it’s notably different from what people do with their old iPhones.

The largest portion of users – 36% – said they just keep their old iPad with the second largest group of 31% said they give it to a friend or family member.

23% said the old iPad was lost, stolen, or broken with a small 6% fraction saying they sold their old tablet and just 3% said they did a trade-in.

Top comment by K Snow

Liked by 2 people

I have an old iPad mini with a broken screen, but it still works, so I use it for music, rain/ocean sounds at night, and gaming while on the elliptical. It’s also good for things I don’t want to waste my battery on my good devices on.

It’s amazing to me that the screen is severely fractured, but I can still use it. I’ve gotten a lot of use out of its broken sorry state.

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For context, CIRP has the iPad findings above and the iPhone breakdown below in this chart.

Chart 1: Disposition of Previous iPad and iPhone (twelve months ending March 2024)

The results make sense as iPad trade-in/resale value is lower than iPhone, so a majority of users decide to keep or hand down the tablets.

It’s also fascinating that a considerably higher percentage of iPad users have a broken, lost, or stolen device compared to iPhone.

How about you? Do you prefer to keep or pass down your old iPads to friends or family? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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Avatar for Michael Potuck Michael Potuck

Michael is an editor for 9to5Mac. Since joining in 2016 he has written more than 3,000 articles including breaking news, reviews, and detailed comparisons and tutorials.


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