iPad Mini Slowly Slides Into Irrelevancy

Neil Cybart:

The iPad mini’s best days are behind it. Using app analytics data from Fiksu and Mixpanel, along with my own iOS device sales estimates and projections, I was able to derive iPad mini sales since launch. Over the past two years, iPad mini sales trends have deteriorated much faster than most people think. When taking into account the move to larger iPhones and iPads, the iPad mini’s value proposition has likely been weakened to such a degree that the decline in sales is permanent. We have experienced “Peak iPad mini.” More importantly, by analyzing the iPad mini’s sales trends, we have better insight as to where the iPhone and iPad product lines are headed and the iOS platform’s overall direction when it comes to form factors.

If the data is accurate, this is a very interesting take on the iPads — big and small. I am constantly shocked how my own view of the iPad (of all sizes) differs from ‘a typical user’. I am using an iPad Pro at the moment, but I love all three sizes. Each one naturally has different strengths and weaknesses. The mini was perfect for reading books and thumb-typing, the Air was near ideal for displaying magazines, while the Pro adds comic books to the latter, and increases productivity, but is less comfortable to use with one hand. At the same time I’m constantly thinking of getting an iPad mini to use just for Tweetbot…