iPad sales keep shrinking — down another 20 percent

Although there was much good news for Apple in its quarterly earnings report, one area that remains weak is the iPad.

Apple sold 13.3 million iPads, generating $5.5 billion in revenue. That represents a roughly 19 percent drop in units and a 22 percent drop in revenue from a year ago.

Still, CFO Luca Maestri said Apple sold more iPads in the quarter than it had anticipated it would. “IPad is incredibly successful,” he said on a conference call, noting Apple’s large share of the market and its share among surveys of those who plan to buy tablets.

CEO Tim Cook added later that there were several factors in the quarter that influenced iPad sales, including a change in inventory levels and component shortages at one supplier — a shortage that continues into the current quarter.

Cook also said he remains bullish on Apple’s tablet.

“We’ve got some exciting things coming on iPad,” he said. “I still feel very optimistic about where we can take the product.”

The brightest spot for the iPad was mainland China, where Apple saw sales up “double digits” from the prior year, CEO Tim Cook said on a conference call with analysts.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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