Apple’s iPad and Watch see a huge jump in sales

Yeah, yeah, Apple makes a lot of money.

Yesterday’s earnings call confirmed this once again, causing a sizable jump in Apple’s stock price, but the really interesting news is that certain categories of Apple products which haven’t been doing that great again are selling much better than last year.

Namely, iPad and Apple Watch.

Apple sold 11.4 million iPads in its financial third quarter, a 15% jump over the same period last year. This is hugely important as it is the first increase in iPad unit sales in four years, even if the revenue growth was only a meager 2%.

The jump is probably only partially due to the launch of the 10.5-inch iPad Pro in June; it likely has far more to do with the cheap new iPad Apple had released in March. Apple is currently pushing two iPad narratives; one is of a cheap secondary device for watching an occasional movie or doing some work on the couch, while the other tries to convince us to buy the iPad as a full-fledged laptop replacement. Regardless of which one (perhaps both?) is working, it appears that Apple is finally on the right track when it comes to tablet sales.

 

For inexplicable reasons, Apple still isn’t ready to talk about unit sales of its Apple Watch, but CEO Tim Cook said Tuesday the Watch sales are up 50% year-over-year. Again, this is great news, after last year’s IDC report that Watch sales have plummeted by 55% since launch.

The Watch has also undergone a reboot of sorts, with Apple ditching the high-end, luxury golden variants and focusing on the fitness aspects of the device last fall. Cook mentioned this during an interview with CNBC following the earnings report Tuesday, highlighting the happy customers who were grateful for their “lifestyle and fitness changes with the watch.”

Apple’s golden egg laying goose, the iPhone, is obviously doing great, and the Mac sales are slightly up as well. But it’s nice to see Apple’s more adventurous product lines doing good as well.