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The iPad is not cannibalising the PC market, research outfit NPD has said.
Citing the fact that only 13 per cent of iPad owners bought an iPad instead of a PC, NPD’s iPad Owner Survey said that iPad owners don’t exhibit the same buying and ownership patterns as the typical electronics consumer in the US.
Instead 24 per cent had substituted the iPad for a planned e-reader purchase and perhaps unsurprisingly those who had purchased an iPad within 2 months of launch were significant more likely to already own Apple products.
The early iPad buyers were also much less likely to own Windows desktops with just 53 per cent of iPad owners overall having a Windows desktop compared to 75 per cent of total US households. The company also found a strong link between the iPhone and the iPad with 38 per cent of those surveyed also owning an iPhone.
“As Apple increases iPad distribution and consumer interest peaks, the profile of an iPad owner is much more likely to mirror the overall tech population,” said NPD industry analysis boss Stephen Baker.
"When that does happen other tech products with similar usage profiles as the iPad, such as notebooks, netbooks, and e-readers will come under increased pressure from the iPad."
“Until then, however, most iPad sales are likely to be incremental additional technology devices in the home, rather than a one-for-one replacement of a planned purchase.”
Baker writing on the NPD Blog provided further insight, saying that almost 80 per cent of early iPad adopters were very satisficed with their iPads compared with a rather less impressive 65 per cent of those who bought Apple’s tablet after the initial launch period.
The lack of USB ports was cited as the top reason for disatisfaction with the iPad, something that concerned 51 per cent of all iPad owners while a lack of an easy printing solution and mutlitasking capabilities were other causes of disastisfaction.
Baker pointed out that Apple is addressing printing and multitasking with the next iOS upgrade for the iPad. Also topping the list of features that owners loved about their iPad was portability and Wi-Fi connectivity although interesting 3G didn’t feature as highly.
Source: NPD press release & NPD blog.
