One analysis says that market data for the June quarter showed for the first time ever that the iPad is replacing sales of traditional PCs to schools and students.
Charlie Wolf with Needham & Company said in a note to investors on Tuesday that PC education shipments fell by 265,000 units, or 13.9 percent, from the June quarter a year ago. Apple, meanwhile, sold nearly a million iPads in the K-12 market in June, which he said is “definitive evidence” that the iPad has been “cannibalizing” PC sales in the U.S. education market.
iPad sales in June were double what Apple sold for the same period a year earlier. The iPad also sold nearly double the number of Macs that Apple sold to education buyers in the quarter.
“Clearly, a significant portion of iPad sales represented an expansion of the market,” Wolf wrote. “But in view of the fact that Mac sales held steady at around 520,000 units but overall PC sales declined by 265,000 units from 1.90 million to 1.64 million units, we believe the inescapable conclusion is that the iPad is beginning to cannibalize a material portion of PC sales in this market.”
Wolf says sales of the iPad to the education market are only the beginning. He thinks the iPad will begin to also chip away at PC sales in other markets in the near future. Saying the next large market the iPad is likely to impact is the U.S. home market.
Mac sales for the June quarter sent mixed signals. Sales of the Mac were strong in the U.S. business market, where it saw 56.6 percent year-over-year growth compared to an 8.8 percent decline in PC sales, but the worldwide home Mac sales fell 4.6 percent.
