Have iPad Sales Peaked?

Apple AAPL has collectively sold more tablets than any other individual manufacturer, but its success may not continue in the coming months. According to Gartner, Apple sold 70 million iPads in 2013. More than 100 million tablets were sold before that, which means that Apple should cross the 200 million mark this year. Quarter after quarter, the iPad has proved to be a great source of profit for Apple, but its success story may not last forever. While Apple has endured hard times before, the company has managed to come out on top with iPad upgrades consumers can't live without. This could be why Apple is expected to release a 12-inch iPad -- to reinvigorate sales of a product line that could be on the verge of deceleration. Related: Panasonic's New 4K Tablet Is 12X More Expensive Than Apple's iPad Air "I expect the iPhone to have a very good quarter, certainly," Andy Hargreaves, Senior Research Analyst of Digital Media at Pacific Crest Securities, told Benzinga. "I expect to see further evidence of deceleration or saturation in the tablet market. I think they'll have a good quarter for those product releases, but evidence of falling sales growth." Hargreaves does not expect any material sales changes for the Mac. "I think you'll see units sort of flat-ish on a year-over-year basis," he said. Apple TV: Still The Dominant Player Fire TV may be the new kid on the block, but Apple's set-top box is expected to continue dominating the market. "I don't know how much they'll talk about it," Hargreaves said of the set-top box. "It's pretty small for them. I wouldn't expect it to be down on a year-over-year basis. I think volumes will still be up a little bit. Even with the entrance of new competition, [Apple] and Roku kind of still dominate the markets. So I don't expect a material change there." iPhone 6's Big Evolution There are new rumors that the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 will not be released this year, but Hargreaves doesn't see this as a delay. "We think a larger iPhone is coming, but we think it's a 4.7-inch phone that launches in September or October," he concluded. "We never really anticipated anything more than that." Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.