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.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
