About 27 percent of e-reader owners would have preferred to wait for iPad

14th March, 2010 by adina
Tags: Apple, eReader, iPad, News, Research, Tablet

About 25 percent of those customers having bought an e-book reader would have preferred to buy an iPad. About 27 percent of the persons who owned an e-reader device as of February would have preferred to buy an Apple device instead. Less than half of them, i.e. 45 percent, would still have chosen the device they already bought.

The decisions of those who do not already own such a device may be favourable to buying an iPad. Of the group of potential buyers who plan to acquire an e-book reader within the next three months, more than 40 percent would want to have an iPad available for buying. Amazon’s Kindle is significantly behind at 28 percent while other e-book makers have only a small fraction of the demand. For example, the Nook form Barnes & Noble has only 6 percent of the demand, while the Reader line of Sony, a true veteran, has only 1 percent.

Of the total pool of surveyed persons, only 13 percent would buy an iPad, which is considered very favourable compared to the iPhone launch in 2007. Only 9 percent of the surveyed group were likely to buy an iPhone two months before the launch of the smartphone. This demonstrates that Apple will be more “on the wave” at the April 3rd release of the iPad than it was almost three years ago when the iPhone was released, according to the industry analysts.

About 68 percent of those expected to buy the Apple tablet plan to be able to browse the Internet with the device. Another priority is e-mail for a group of 44 percent potential customers. 37 percent of the persons taking the survey plan to read e-books while 28 percent would look at magazines. Other 24 percent would use the device for video playback.

Although apparently facing a high demand, Apple may not find itself in a very short term rush, as only 16 percent of the potential iPad buyers plan to acquire such a device within the first month, while most of 62 percent plan to wait between 2 and 12 months before buying. Another 8 percent would even wait more than a whole year.

Buying an iPad not only means profit for Apple but is also expected to affect the other products of the company. For instance, 10 percent of iPhone owners and 9 percent of iPod touch users would want the more expensive iPad, but another 13 percent said they would give up buying a Mac desktop or notebook to get the tablet that is a cheaper device. The high need of e-book readers is however expected to increase the overall demand for Apple devices and attract even those buyers who never thought to buy from the company.

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