But they ALSO replaced the Air 2 with a really nice device at $330 instead of $500. I'd expect that's far more responsible for the increase than the 10.5" and should continue for a while at least.

Edit: according to MacStories iPad revenue is only up 2%. That would fit with a lower profit device being a big part of sales.

> But they ALSO replaced the Air 2 with a really nice device at $330 instead of $500.

Yep. And if you watch Best Buy, you can get it on sale even cheaper (~$299). An iPad at that price pushes out almost every contender tablet out there.

It's too bad the screen isn't quite as nice as the Air 2, but the processor is dramatically better.

It really is a fantastic price point.

There is massive iPad growth in the small business sector. If you walk into a restaurant these days, it's pretty common to see three or four iPads sitting on the counter. Seems like every service like Amazon Prime Now or GrubHub requires its own iPad.

Daycares are also big consumers of iPads that allow parents to see pictures of their kids at school.

Many small businesses are now using Square to accept payments, which requires an iPad at every cash register.

Technically, for all or most of these purposes, an Android tablet would work equally well. But people still think "iPad" when a tablet is required.

For a business, saving $100 on a tablet is probably not a big consideration.

On the other hand, iOS's security, encryption, stability and regular software updates are probably a consideration. Add in the fact that you can quickly get an iPad serviced or replaced at an Apple store (and you can get a small business account with Apple), and you can see why someone would want to get an iPad over an Android tablet.

Keep in mind that a $329 iPad is like an order of a magnitude cheaper than a traditional point of sale system. Being able to use a phone or a tablet (and some relatively cheap accessories) is a revolution over old-school point of sale systems.

> Technically, for all or most of these purposes, an Android tablet would work equally well. But people still think "iPad" when a tablet is required.

I'm still waiting for an Android tablet that's as nice to use as an iPad.

For small business purposes, you're mostly in 1-2 apps all the time anyway, which look the same on Android and iOS.

We ran payments at our main front counter on a Samsung tablet and it was never an issue with our employees or customers. However, we had to retire it when Samsung stopped updating the OS and our payments vendor no longer supported our old version of Android. We now have an iPad there.

That's a shame.

I didn't think of that specific use-case (only one or two apps for the whole life-cycle of the unit).

I'm still curious to know if it would be cheaper to buy Android units anyways and replace them as their software becomes obsolete as compared to buying pricier iPads that will keep up longer with software updates. Just factoring the costs here, not the environmental impact obviously.

In general I noticed a shorter support period in the Android segment as compared to iOS (Excluding terrible cases such as OnePlus dropping support almost instantly).

So are you saying an Android device is or isn't a good alternative? They work just the same until they stop getting updated and have to be replaced with an iPad?

Interesting. It makes sense that businesses want to be associated with strong brands. Using an lesser known tablet brand at their point of sales / customer interaction tool might make them look cheap.

We get a lot of these small business iPads in when they break (I run a chain of computer/phone/tablet repair shops.) When I get a chance to talk with customers, they mostly pick iPad because they know and are comfortable with iOS.

Or they literally don't realize there's any other tablet out there--other than Kindle Fire, which in their mind doesn't run small business apps.

People associate Kindle Fires with "cheap tablet for their kids." And cheap they are--when they break, it's actually cheaper to buy a new one than to replace a cracked screen on an existing one.

I've met people that were scared of Square as it "didn't look like a genuine POS".

I guess using an iPad could make the consumer feel safer. Than again a "Pro" looking case for the Android tablet might also do the trick.

If I didn't know what Square was I'd be suspicious too.

Swiping your credit card into a dongle attached to the audio jack of an iPhone/iPad. Seems legit.

> Not a repeatable bump though AFAICT.

I'd take that action. It looks to me like the iPad is just starting to mature into a full-fledged product.

I agree. iOS11 is going to grow the use case for the iPad.