Apple announced that sales for the iPad tablet came in at 13.3 million units for the quarter ended June, less than a million units compared to the corresponding quarter of 2013.
However, despite the decline in sales, Apple CEO Tim Cook is optimistic that the company's recently forged partnership with IBM will soon significantly increase iPad usage and sales.
In a conference call after Apple's announcement of its earnings for the recently-ended quarter, Cook said that the company's share in the market for commercial tablet computers is at a leading 76 percent. However, in the market for tablet computers in businesses, Apple only has a market penetration rate of 20 percent, compared to enterprise notebook market penetration of 60 percent.
Cook said that the low usage of tablet computers in enterprises is a good opportunity for Apple, and is one of the major factors of why the company forged a partnership with IBM.
"We think that the core thing that unleashes this is a better go-to-market which IBM clearly brings to the table, but even more importantly, apps that are written with MobileFirst in mind. Not all, but many of the enterprise apps that have been written for iPad have been, essentially, ports from the desktop and haven't taken full advantage of mobile," Cook said.
Cook believes that Apple will be able to rapidly increase the adoption of iPads in enterprises through its partnership with IBM.
Enterprises should expect new platforms to be created through the Apple-IBM partnership, along with dedicated iPhone and iPad apps for business.
However, so far, implementation details of the partnership have not been largely disclosed, with specific details likely to be released not until fall.
Sales for the iPad have reached 225 million units in four years, which is an impressive figure for Apple considering that the market for tablet computers upon the iPad's release was questionable at best.
Cook has been discussing for several years now of his belief that, eventually, the tablet computer market will surpass the personal computer market.
While Cook's belief might still be far from happening, Apple's partnership with IBM will surely speed up the realization of his claim.
Gartner projections say that the tablet computer market will be for 350 million units annually, while the personal computer market will be for 315 million units annually.
Apple's partnership with IBM was revealed earlier this month, making a splash as competitors scramble to think of ways to battle against the combined might of the two companies.
