Apple may have a bit of a problem on its hands if a new report from Goldman Sachs (Via www.bgr.com)is accurate. According to a new report, sales of the iPad 2 are slowing even as we come into the holiday shopping season. There are, of course, many possible reasons for this. Among them might be the fact that people are waiting until the holiday season is closer (read Black Friday) to make a purchase and yesterday’s release of the Amazon Kindle fire which is just $199 as opposed to the $499 buy in to get the least expensive iPad. Still, regardless of the reason(s), if this slowdown is actually happening it is a problem for Apple. We have a suggestion for how to reverse this trend. It comes down to one simple word- Siri.
The big selling point of the iPhone 4S isn’t the increased speed, improved camera or maximum capacity of 64 GB. All of them are nice (VERY nice) but the biggest reason and selling point for the iPhone 4S is, without a doubt, Siri. Those of us who have begun using it for productivity swear by it and, for at least some of us, it has meant that the iPhone is being used much more now than it was just a few weeks ago. Moreover, because of Siri some of us are using the iPhone when, BS (Before Siri) we would have turned to the iPad. The reason is simple. Nothing compares with being able to accurately use your voice to do basic commands and write posts or emails (it’s how I’m writing this post right now).
If Apple wants to reverse the potential trend of slowing sales of the iPad all they need to do is make Siri available on the iPad 2. We know the device can handle it since it has the same processor and RAM as the iPhone 4S. We also know that it doesn’t need the revamped proximity sensor that’s found in the iPhone. Seriously, like we would actually move the iPad to our face to trigger Siri? No way.
Right now the Amazon Kindle fire has the media attention. The iPad is old news, the Kindle fire is new news. By releasing an update to the iPad 2s OS Apple would once again be in the limelight and, I suspect, things would be moving in a different direction.
What do you say Apple? It’s an easy play for you and there’s really no downside.