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Digitimes Research: iPad shipments to drop to 55 million units in 2015

Joanne Chien, DIGITIMES Research, Taipei

Thanks to Sony quitting the notebook market and Apple's price cuts, MacBook shipments in 2014 are expected to grow over 15% on year, the highest growth among the top-10 vendors. But Apple's iPad shipments are expected to see a decline in the year.

In 2015, Digitimes Research estimates that MacBook shipments will grow further, but iPad shipments are expected to continue decreasing to reach around 55 million units. The iPad's shipment decline will result in Apple's overall shipments for the MacBook and iPad to drop from almost 90 million units in 2013 to around 80 million units in 2014 and 70 million units in 2015.

Although Apple reportedly will launch a 12.9-inch iPad and add a new line of product using 12.2-inch Retina displays in 2015, the vendor's effort is unlikely to be able to stop its tablet shipments from seeing a major decline.

Digitimes Research believes that the iPhone 6/6 Plus will continue to cannibalize iPad mini sales in 2015.