NPD: 51% of 18-34 Year Olds Would Prefer Notebook to iPad

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The iPad may be selling like gangbusters, but an interesting survey done by NPD suggests that it’s still not the ideal device for a slim majority of computer users: amongst surveyed 18-34 year olds, 51% said they would rather have a more conventional portable like a laptop or netbook than an iPad. Even Apple owners aren’t totally convinced: 44% said they’d rather have a MacBook than an iPad.

According to NPD’s vice president of industry analysis, Stephen Baker: “The most interested potential iPad customers see it primarily as a music device, or for its internet access capabilities.”

He continued: “Considering what people are planning to use the iPad for, it’s not hard to understand why people who have these capabilities on other devices, such as the iPod Touch or a notebook/netbook, may not want to spend $500 or more on a similar device. This points to the need for Apple to close the content deals that focus the iPad on what is likely to be its best long-range value proposition around high quality media consumption.”

I think it’s rather strange that so many people think the iPad is a music device, since that actually seems like one of the things the iPad is going to be least used for. Sure, the iPad will be a fine music player… but the iPod is still going to be people’s go-to platform, just by dint of portability.

Of course, the beauty of the iPad is it isn’t an either-or proposition. Jobs said it himself: this is a device that is supposed to sit between a laptop and an iPhone. My guess is that there will be a lot of people reconsidering their position on the iPad once they actually get to play with one in their hands and see what it can do.

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