Apple sells fewer iPads – update

Apple has seen a decline in iPad sales growth in recent months. iPhone sales improved, rising 17 percent from the same period last year, according to quarterly figures from the American electronics manufacturer.

Apple sold 43.7 million iPhones in January, February and March, up from 37.4 million in the same period last year. Apple released its iPhone 5s and 5c just over half a year ago and recently also released an 8GB version of the iPhone 5c.

The number of iPads sold was 16.3 million compared to 19.5 million in the first months of 2013. Apple released new iPads just late last year, including the iPad Air and iPad mini Retina. The number of Macs sold is 4.1 million, slightly higher than last year’s 3.9 million.

This means that the rapid growth of both the iPhone and the iPad, Apple’s largest sources of income, seems to be slowly coming to an end. While sales of the smartphone market as a whole continue to grow by tens of percent, iPhone sales have been slowing the rest of the market for more than a year now. The growth of 17 percent is higher than in previous quarters.

Apple had a turnover of around 33 billion euros and made a profit of 7.6 billion euros. That is slightly higher than the turnover and profit in the same period last year.

Update, Thursday 08:15: Apple claims in a statement that the decline in iPad sales is less dramatic than the quarterly figures suggest. The company says consumers bought 17.5 million iPads compared to 18 million in the same quarter a year earlier. The quarterly figures only contain figures for shipped iPads: Apple, like almost all other manufacturers, rarely if ever mentions real sales figures.