[IBM]

Interesting that iPad sales were flat year over year. I would have thought it would have contracted without new iPads launched.

Also the big increase in iPhone sales year over year jives with what Asymco has posted about Android peaking. The easy growth from feature phones being replaced by low-end Android devices is over.

[cstrat]

I have a lot of Apple devices, and I am sure there are others out there like me who are stick using an original iPad 2. Those devices have not really needed an upgrade unless you wanted to move to the mini. My device is almost at its end, I have dropped it a bunch of times and the battery is struggling to last a 10 hour day at work (I dont use it a lot during the day, only really in meetings and on the run).

There is probably a big fleet of iPad 2 users out there who are almost ready to upgrade when their device dies. I think Apple have done right by the consumer by making iOS 7 work on the iPad 2... they could have chased profits and limited iOS 7 to only the newer iPads...

[shock-value]

IMO the retina screen is a big reason to upgrade from the 2 (and is the reason I waited for the 3rd gen model). I pretty much use my iPad exclusively for reading text of some format--web pages, text-based services like Facebook and Reddit, books, etc. (with the occasional YouTube or Netflix video thrown in)--and having that extra clarity as compared to the first two versions is crucial for me.

It's now that I don't really feel any compelling reason to upgrade -- even with iOS7 the interface is plenty fast enough, and I don't use it for games so any increases in performance wouldn't really matter to me.

[cstrat]

Yeah I forgot that the retina was the big selling point. For me I didn't mind the screen the way it was - the battery life is great since the screen is average.

So for people like you who have moved to the iPad 3 (or whatever its stupid name was) - you have another year or two before needing a replacement...

[mixmastamyk]

I use mine for netflix primarily, no need for the retina.

[jusben1369]

"I would have thought it would have contracted without new iPads launched." Say what? That product line is only 3 or 4 years old and it's already flat? That was very surprising to me and very disappointing. Isn't the iPad now the new iPod? Only that I think took 7 years or more before it went flat. Apple's now a growth company only based on one single product that comes in two flavors and the entire rest of the tech world is gunning to take that away from them.