Apple CEO Tim Cook calls iPad sales slump "a speed bump": Do you agree?

In usual fashion, Apple has been the talk of the tech world over the summer, and for good reason. As well as 

being one of the premier companies in the world, it recently signed a landmark partnership with old enemy 

IBM and is set to launch a brand new batch of iPhones in a fortnight.

However, the Cupertino-based firm has also come in for a lot of criticism, especially where the iPad is 

concerned.

2014 has not been kind to the device. Sales have slowed considerably and have reportedly prompted Apple 

to rethink its strategy. Just this morning it was revealed that Apple is set to take a leaf out of Samsung's book 

and go large. Much of the world now expects a beastly 12.9in iPad to hit shelves at some point next year.

Meanwhile, the company is gearing up for a pre-Christmas release of the latest generation of its tablet and its 

smaller sibling. The full-sized version is expected to measure in at 9.7in and the mini should be 7.9in.

A couple of weeks ago, Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly said, "The tablets boomed and are now crashing. The volume has really gone down in the last several months.

"The tablets have been an unbelievable phenomenon. I don't think there's a category that ever took off so quickly and so big in the history of tech. The issue has then been that, once you have a tablet of a certain generation, it's not clear that you have to move on to the next generation.

"As a consumer. I think replacement is the issue. The penetration has gone so fast ... and the level of innovation in the past year has not been as great as it had been in the previous two years."

Not a good outlook for this particular line of business.

This week, however, CEO Tim Cook defended the iPad, telling Re/code, "We couldn't be happier with how we've done with the first four years of the iPad. I'd call what's going on recently a speed bump, and I've seen that in every category."

The tablet is undoubtedly one of the most successful tech products we've seen in recent years, so it's difficult to imagine it dying out so quickly. However, the transformation and revival of the laptop, coupled with consumers' unwillingness to upgrade, does not make for easy reading.