Is the iPad Cannibalizing iPod Sales?

iPod sales are declining; and with the first set of sales data from the US being released, the culprit for this drop may be Apple’s own iPad.

The new research report from the NPD Group, a market researcher, shows a 17 percent drop in the year-to-year April sales of the iPod. Luckily for Apple, the iPad has not had any effect on the sales of their Mac computers, which are up at a healthy 39 percent.

It should have come as no surprise for Apple that with the release of the iPad that their other products are suffering. And, in fact, iPod sales have been falling gradually since the inception of the iPhone; the iPad is seemingly just accelerating the process.

Overall, the effect the iPad has on iPod sales does not look to be a huge issue for Apple, says Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

Munster has also said he believes that in the long run the impact on the Mac “will exist but will be minimal.” Apple, he adds, “has successfully limited the iPad functionality to primarily content consumption” as opposed to “content creation.”

Of course, if Apple does not have the foresight to keep the iPad as a “content consumption–only” device, then it could easily become the laptop killer they are worried about after all.

Source: WSJ, TechRadar