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Consumers Don’t Want Tablets, They Want iPads

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  • A theory: Though consumers desire the iPad for the functions it performs, they want it more for what it is. Just as many preferred the iPod to the generic MP3 player, so too do they prefer the iPad to the generic “tablet.”

    Apple is succeeding in the category because it reinvented it. Now anyone that hopes to compete in it must do so by peddling products similar to it. And because of that, Apple will dominate the tablet category in much the same way it dominated the portable music player category.

    So there is a tablet market, but it’s been subsumed by the iPad market, just as the MP3 player market was engulfed by the market for the iPod.

    Consider this observation from a new Bernstein Research survey: “We find that consumers are not interested in form factors that deviate from the benchmark set by Apple. Few consumers, less than 15 percent prefer the 7″ screen size versus the 10″ screen of the iPad. Over 50 percent of respondents are firmly in favor of the 10″ screen, which leads us to conclude that the 7″ tablet models recently launched, like the BlackBerry PlayBook, are destined for failure. Consumer’s preference for the 10″ form factor explains the lukewarm response to Samsung’s 7″ Galaxy tablet and the rapid introduction of larger screen models in that series.”

    In other words, success in the tablet market may well be dependent on how similar a manufacturer’s offering is to the iPad. Which is quite a challenge given the formidable combination of hardware, software and app ecosystem that the iPad represents — not to mention the sheer power of its brand.

    Said Bernstein, “Fifty percent of respondents preferred Apple over all other brands. There is a remarkable degree of unanimity in consumer’s preferences for the iPad over competing products. … In the US, we find that Apple has more than double the brand appeal of BlackBerry, HTC, Motorola, Nokia and Samsung combined. These manufacturers have a very high level of brand equity and visibility in adjacent categories. It is striking that they hold so little appeal for consumers in tablets.”

    No surprise then that Bernstein sees the tablet market playing out in two ways, each with Apple in the catbird seat.

    UPDATE: Some additional perspective on this from Instapaper creator Marco Arment (via Daring Fireball)

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    Showing 1-25 of 136 comments

    • chip825 5 comments collapsed CollapseExpand
      Let's see.... Ipad was 1st, then Ipad 2 was 1st, then there is or is it "was" everyone else. At the same price points, it's a no brainer.
    • Joe Wojciechowski 4 comments collapsed CollapseExpand
      IPAD was the first what?
    • bmovie 2 comments collapsed CollapseExpand
      In the beginning was the iPad, and the iPad was with Steve Jobs, and the iPad was Steve Jobs. The IPad was with Steve Jobs in the beginning.
      Through Steve Jobs all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

      The iPad shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
    • David Lemieux 1 comment collapsed CollapseExpand
      Lost me... mind you, I ain't been to church in ages.. that must be it.
    • davepermen, Computer Freak, Musician 1 comment collapsed CollapseExpand
      the first tablet, of course. don't count all the others i've used before the ipad. they all don't count.

      and yes, while i don't care about the ipad, it is a first of it's kind. somehow. even while i used tons of tablets for years before the ipad.
    • The Acid Edge, Interested in history and technology, all with a particular sense of humour. 1 comment collapsed CollapseExpand
      It seems you are discovering America, John... congratulations!
    • freerange 12 comments collapsed CollapseExpand
      This article makes the classic mistake of just mentioning the hardware variations. It is the entire ecosystem, not just the hardware that makes the iPad such a strong device, far far ahead of the "competition".
    • Todd Singleton 11 comments collapsed CollapseExpand
      "Ecosystem"? You mean the pretentious Apple culture?
    • rattyuk 6 comments collapsed CollapseExpand
      No, he ment how the hardware all works together... Take your blinkers off and consider why this is happening, rather than the knee-jerk fan boy response.

      You added nothing to the conversation, save to tilt at a windmill that many other have... Meanwhile iPads just keep on selling so Apple is doing something right. You may not like it, you may not think it is fair, but that is the way it is.
    • Joe Wojciechowski 1 comment collapsed CollapseExpand
      Well of course when you buy and overpriced tablet and already have an overpriced computer and an overpriced phone it's all going to work together. Who care's what it actually does or how it preforms it's from Apple WHARGARBLEEE11!!!11
    • Todd Singleton 1 comment collapsed CollapseExpand
      Fair ain't got nothin' to do with it. I applaud Steve Jobs. He branded electronics consumers into oblivious morons who can't think for themselves and appreciate the real value of technology verses some garbage in a shiny, well marketed boxes. I didn't say Apple doesn't do anything right. They market very well.

      Many who work with higher level technologies for a living abandoned the Apple resurgence within the last few years. Problematic, incompatible technology for higher level applications and I'm not talking about iCrap apps to help organize your living room furniture. They are pretty much exclusively the choice of pop-culture consumers. The same ones who salivated over Blackberry's before the iPhone. I chuckle every time I see someone jizz over an iPad. It's like watching school kids swoon over an American Idol contestant except they add a bit of ego flare when speaking of their wonderful new toy.

      Apple is an excellent example of how to take money from a Facebook audience with a 2 hour attention span. There, I added that to the conversation. Now run along and play.
    • rattyuk 1 comment collapsed CollapseExpand
      "Many who work with higher level technologies for a living abandoned the Apple resurgence within the last few years. Problematic, incompatible technology for higher level applications and I'm not talking about iCrap apps to help organize your living room furniture"

      Firstly you are ignoring the fact that a very large number of developers use Apple machines to work on. Even if they are developing for Windows people prefer the hardware. Go figure.

      "Apple is an excellent example of how to take money from a Facebook audience with a 2 hour attention span. There, I added that to the conversation. Now run along and play."
      I get that you think that the iPad is symptomatic of the Facebook generation but this is the world we live in. Sounds like you have significant problems with the world and just needed a place to vent.
    • kibbles 1 comment collapsed CollapseExpand
      boy the haters are really out tonite (not you, rattyuk)

      sorry folks, but apple actually spends far less on marketing than its competitors -- a fraction of microsoft's budget. google it.

      it doesnt need to spend as much -- its products resonate better w/ consumers and sell themselves. while your knee-jerk reaction is to say its because we are all millions and millions and millions of mindless drones, the data proves otherwise.

      also -- who has a better-priced capable capacitive touchscreen tablet? apple's $500 is the best one ive heard of. industry analysts predicted it would be higher.
    • kibbles 1 comment collapsed CollapseExpand
      FYI -- i am a seasoned enterprise Microsoft-based software developer. .NET is my platform of choice for my customers (national banks, retailers, etc). i run Windows and develop on virtual machines running on mac hardware.

      guess im just a dumbo consumer tho, right? mindless drone?
    • LloydPearsonIV 3 comments collapsed CollapseExpand
      Part of that ecosystem have to do with the number of apps available for it. Its not so much the device as it is the experience & the apps really add to that experience.


      If they didn't have the apps, it probably wouldn't be such a big deal, but isnce they do, it makes all the difference.
    • bslayerw 1 comment collapsed CollapseExpand
      I'd like to add that it's also the quality of the apps on the App Store. Sure there are some crappy ones but there are a ton of really high quality apps on the App Store.
    • kibbles 1 comment collapsed CollapseExpand
      when the iOS devices were first released, there were no apps. they flourished despite this because of the *experience*.
    • FaustsHausUK 1 comment collapsed CollapseExpand
      No, he meant the ecosystem. Between the iTunes store for music and video, and the the app store for games and utilities, Apple's got everything far more integrated and cohesive than the competition.

      We can talk about open and choice and all of these other things, but it's the reason the iPod was so successful - it was stupidly easy to buy content and pump it onto your device knowing full well it would work.
    • banjoonmyknee 3 comments collapsed CollapseExpand
      Count me in the 15% who prefer a 7" tablet.

      It's the one thing keeping me from buying an iPad. Too bad Steve Jobs doesn't seem to want the money from that segment of the population.
    • eternalemperor 1 comment collapsed CollapseExpand
      The problem is the number of people like you are too small. Tell me, have you purchased a Tab or Playbook?
    • Canucker, Life sciences researcher 1 comment collapsed CollapseExpand
      Wait awhile. There will never be a 7" iPad but no one said there wouldn't be a 7" iPod Touch. It's all about scaling and even Steve Jobs doesn't like leaving money on the table.
    • Billy Joe 22 comments collapsed CollapseExpand
      I have posted here before and the Ipad and Ipad 2 are inferior to the others
    • chrise3a 14 comments collapsed CollapseExpand
      Unfortunately for you not much of what you say is backed by either sales or consumer sentiment.
    • Billy Joe 6 comments collapsed CollapseExpand
      Wrong If you did some homework by reading reviews from consumers of
      these sites I have mentioned you will find
      ww.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/p... aapl has half the
      consumer reviews 155 over the Xoom 310 for the 95 days being sold and
      take notice the Ipad has 30% more negative 1star reviews than the Xoom
      These are facts by retailer consumers

      Models compared

      Apple iPad 2 MC769LL/A Tablet (16GB, Wifi, Black) NEWEST MODEL

      MOTOROLA XOOM Android Tablet (Wi-Fi)

      One additional note the Xoom is less expensive and has Larger GB 32 compared to the 16GB offered by aapl



    • Steve Pye 1 comment collapsed CollapseExpand
      You're missing the point, Billy Joe... the number of customer reviews on Amazon, or any other site for that matter, does not equate to the overall receptiveness of a product in the market. You can't tell others they're wrong for not doing their homework, when your assessment is based on criteria that are not legitimate to market research. You simply cannot compare user feedback on single sites to an overall global market and say that this feedback represents 100% of the users out there.

      If you understand market research at all, you'd know that people are often ten times more likely to post negative feedback, rather than positive. Which means that for every complaint you see, there are potentially 10 people that are perfectly happy. This is market research 101. No market research would ever consider a few hundred reviews to be indicative of the general attitude of the market when the market has over 20 million users.
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