iPad sales to surpass PCs, believes Apple CEO, Tim Cook

As the highly-anticipated iPad 3’s supposed release date draws closer, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook speaks about how iPads could give the PC market a run for money. At a conference call with analysts last month, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook said that he was confident about the future of tablets and the market for tablets would bypass that of desktop PCs and notebooks. Echoing the sentiment, Cook revealed on Tuesday that iPad has affected Mac sales, too, reports PCMag. He added that, “that doesn't mean that the PC is going to die, I don't predict the demise of the PC industry, I don't predict the demise of the PC industry".

iPad to surpass PCs

"The Mac is still growing, and I think it could still grow, but I strongly believe that the tablet market will surpass the unit sales of the PC market," he said at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. "It's just a matter of the rate and speed and time that that happens."

Android tablets arguably didn’t do really well through the last year and inspite the hordes of all sizes and varieties of tablets that emerged, iPad managed to sustain its position in the tablet race. The last quarter saw 15.43 million iPads being sold, while 5.2 million Macs were purchased by consumers. On the other hand, HP shipped 14.4 million devices, considering HP takes the top spot in the PC market. Cook is pretty fine with iPads cannibalizing Mac sales and wouldn’t mind if its customers move from one Apple product to another, and that they will not stop building better Macs, because of fall in sales.

Talking about iPad’s low-cost competitors, Cook says, “Price is rarely the most important thing. Customers might feel great paying less for a cheap tablet, but "then they get it home and use it and the joy is gone." Talking about Kindle Fire, Cook said, “Amazon is a different kind of competitor." He also acknowledged that Amazon have and will sell a lot of units but Apple customers won’t be satisfied with a limited-function type of product.”