Tablet sales aren’t what they used to be. That is, companies selling super cheap white box slabs for video are doing lots of volume. However, top tier players, like Apple and Samsung, have lost some of their luster. Enter the gold iPad Air?
A funny thing happened along the iPad’s Post PC road to world domination, it didn’t happen or at the very least it hasn’t happened yet. Sales haven’t tanked, but growth has definitely tapered. In fact, while there are different ways to draw the trend line, most show iPad sales either flat or falling.
Is Apple poised to do something about its iPad sales problem? Change is afoot, but there is more than one way to read those tea leaves. Bloomberg is reporting that Apple plans to ship gold iPad Airs later this month.
Apple will add a gold color option for its full-size iPads in an effort to boost a category that’s posted declining shipments this year, according to people familiar with the plans. That brings the color palette into line with the iPhone 5s, which come with silver or gold backs for models with a white faceplate, and space gray for those with a black front.
Of course, Apple’s current iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphone product lines are also available in silver, space gray and gold. Spicing up a product line with color is a trick Apple has relied on since at least the company’s multihued 1998 iMac update.
While some people will see the addition of a gold iPad as a desperation move on the part of Apple to bolster flagging sales, it is much more likely this move has been planned, part of their product roadmap for years already.
It’s just taken Jony Ive et al this long to perfect their gold iPad manufacturing mojo…
What’s your take?
Via: The Verge