How the iPad is killing the iPad

Sales of Apple’s iPad 2 in the UAE have fallen drastically following the global the launch of the New iPad (or iPad 3). The New iPad is not yet officially available here in the UAE, though many Apple fans and traders have already shipped in stocks from markets where the New iPad has been launched. “Sales of iPad 2 have dropped by 50 per cent since the launch of the new tablet,” said Bittu Jethani of Sheeba General Trading, one of the first to bring the New iPad into the UAE market. “With hardly any price difference, there is no reason why anyone should opt for the older version of the iPad,” he said. While officially the older iPad versions are still priced at Dh1500 and above, online, those models are available at throwaway prices. The first generation iPad 1 in perfect condition is selling for as low as Dh1200 for 16GB while iPad 2 models are being priced at Dh1400 and upwards. Some owners are even selling their iPads with additional new accessories to find quick buyers. “I recently purchased a three-month old 32Gb iPad 2 from Abu Dhabi for Dh1800,”said Sudesh Manjunath a sales executive from Dubai. The New iPad is selling for Dh2,450 for a 16GB wifi only model, and 4G is priced at Dh2,450. Meanwhile, according to latest figures by mobile advertising firm Jumptap, while the first week of the launch saw sales of the new iPad hit record levels (3 million in a week) traffic levels thereafter continued to slow. The network that measured iPad traffic on over 107 million monthly mobile users said “iPad3 traffic represented .52 per cent of total iPad network traffic on the day of launch, peaked at 2.28 per cent by day three, and closed out the week at 1.92 per cent. “iPad and iPad2, on the other hand, each maintained 45 per cent or more of the total iPad traffic throughout the week.” Meanwhile, according to another prediction from technology research firm Gartner, tablets made by Apple will continue to retain the number one spot for the next four years with annual unit shipments expected to increase by four fold to 169.7 million by 2016. According to it 118.9 million tablets will be sold next year compared to 60 million sold last year.