iPad Pro continues to thrash the iPad Air as Apple's most popular tablet

Sucking the Air out of Apple's mid-range slate?

News By Mark Wilson published 15 November 2024

• New sales figures show the iPad Pro is by far Apple's most popular tablet
• The iPad Air comes in a distant third behind the affordable base iPad
• Figures don't yet reflect the popularity of the new iPad Mini 7

Thinking about treating yourself (or a loved one) to a new iPad this Christmas or in the Black Friday tablet deals? Some new sales figures have revealed which models other iPad buyers are going for this year – and the distant winner is the iPad Pro.

The figures from analysts CIRP (Consumer Intelligence Research Partners) give us our first glimpse of the relative popularity of the new iPad Pro M4 and iPad Air (2024), which both landed in May. They show the sales during the quarter that ended in September.

The slightly surprising conclusion is that while the iPad Pro has retained its market share from last year (at 45% of all iPad sales), the iPad Air has dropped to only 13% (compared to 24% during the same quarter last year).

The main beneficiary has been the base iPad 10 (2022), which is now 33% of all iPad sales. The iPad mini has remained fairly static at 9% of iPad sales, though that should increase during the next quarter when iPad Mini 7 figures are included.

It seems that the iPad Air is in something of a no-man's land, with the base iPad getting a $100 / £100 price cut this year and clearly proving to be the value option. Strangely, the Air is also no longer Apple's lightest iPad, with the iPad Pro models coming in 20g lighter.

Do iPad buyers care about Apple Intelligence?

What these figures don't yet tell us is what impact (if any) Apple Intelligence features will have on iPad buying decisions.

Apple's take on AI-powered tools, which Apple unveiled in September, will bring new features to Mail, Messages, Photos, Siri, and more. The base iPad is now the only model that doesn't support Apple Intelligence features, which require an M1 chip or later (and also work on the new iPad mini's A17 Pro chip).

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