Robert W. BairdAccording to a report issued on Wednesday, consumers who already own or plan to buy a new tablet are only interested in one thing: the Apple iPad.
The report, which was published by Robert W. Baird, a Milwaukee-based wealth management and analyst company, was conducted through a survey of 1,114 people, 98 percent of whom lived in the United States.
More than 50 percent of those surveyed, who were between 22 and 60 years old, said they already owned a tablet or were interested in buying one soon, with 95 percent of these respondents choosing the Apple iPad.
Although survey participants were allowed to pick multiple tablet choices, only 10 percent chose the Hewlett-Packard TouchPad as their tablet. A mere 4 percent said they would buy Research in Motion’s new BlackBerry tablet, the PlayBook. The Acer Iconia tablet, which runs Google’s Android software, barely scored 1 percent among survey participants.
Jayson Noland, an analyst and an author of the report, said it was very unlikely that any iPad competitors would be able to catch Apple in the near future. “I find it hard to believe that anyone can compete with the iPad,” he said in a phone interview. “I do think there are opportunities for companies outside the personal tablet category by offering a much much lower cost product that can be used in the workplace as a productivity tool.”
When asked if Google could compete with Apple by offering tablets running Android software, Mr. Noland said, “Unless a product comes out that is half the price of the iPad, and comes with good enough bells of whistles, then its highly unlikely.”
The survey also found that a 83 percent of tablet owners still plan to buy a PC computer in addition to their tablet. This means that tablet cannibalization of the PC computer is taking place at a very slow pace.