iPad vs eReaders – Surveys Predicting Usage and Purchase Intent no comments
A survey performed by ChangeWave a few weeks ago seemed to indicate that amongst potential buyers of ereaders more were planning to buy the Ipad rather than the Kindle or another dedicated ereading device. Also according to this survey a little over a quarter of those who had recently purchased an ereader would have bought an iPad instead if it had been available. The ChangeWave survey was of 3,171 consumers and came out the week after the iPad announcement.
One of the questions on the survey “From the list of possible uses, please tell us which ones you’re most interested in using on the iPad. (Check No More Than Three)” resulted in:
- Surfing the Internet came in first place at 68%.
- Checking email at second place with 44%.
- Reading books came in third at 37%.
- Reading newspapers and periodicals came in third place with 28%.
- Watching video came in fifth at 24%.
This same survey also found that 27% of recent ereader purchasers would have opted for the iPad if it had been available at the time of their purchase, and that 40% of those planning to buy an ereader in the next 90 days would opt of the iPad.
Last week the results of a survey by comScore were released. This comes almost a month after the initial iPad announcement by Steve Jobs. By this time there had been a lot of scrutiny of the iPad and comparisons between it and other competing tablets coming to market. This survey was of 2,176 internet users.
ComScore’s survey results predict purchase intent of customers who plan on purchasing an ereader within three months as follows:
- Apple iPad comes in first at 15%.
- Amazon Kindle gets 14%.
- Barnes and Noble nook at 10%.
- Sony ereaders get 9%.
Curiously, the Samsung Papyrus came in at fifth place with 8% of respondents planning to buy this ereader. This even though the Papyrus is not available in the US. Perhaps this is a result of confusion with the Samsung E6 ereader, which will be available soon at B & N.
As for usage intentions, this survey found that the top four intended uses were:
- 50% of iPad owners will use it for surfing the Web.
- 48% will use the iPad for email.
- 38% will use the iPad for listening to music.
- 37% will use the iPad for reading books. (tied in fourth place with maintaining a contact list/address book).
ComScore also found that:
Younger consumers indicated a high willingness to pay for news and magazines specially formatted for e-readers. 68 percent of 25-34 year olds and 59 percent of 35-44 year olds said they were willing to pay for this content, representing substantially higher percentages than people age 45 and older.
This is a bit surprising.
Another study by Morpace (also last week) found that 47% of purchasers intending to purchase netbooks and 49% of those intending to purchase ereaders would wait until seeing an iPad before making their purchasing decisions. For those planning to purchase laptops 28% were waiting to see the iPad before making their purchase. This survey was of 1,000 consumers aged 18 and over.
The usage intent shown by the surveys seems to fit in with my expectations of how people will use iPads based on what I’ve been told by people I’ve talked to who have ordered Apple’s new tablet. I think we are going to see a massive wave of iPad enabled couch-based Web surfing. I would also expect that in the first few months after the iPad ships there will be a lot of ebooks sold for it as new owners stock up their tablets. In the long term though I would expect that iPad owners will account for fewer ebook sales per user than users of dedicated ereaders.
Of course we will not know how exactly the iPad will be used and how good it will be as an ereader until it has been out for awhile. Surveys can be and often are misleading. Obviously the iPad is a cool, sexy device and has the potential to be disruptive to a number of other devices.
I just bought a new netbook a few months ago. Do I regret not waiting for the iPad? Well, not really – I needed the netbook then. I also think that there are other tablets coming out with more capabilities than iPad Version 1 and I will be comparing these with the iPad before I buy a tablet.
Incidentally, Craigmod has an interesting post today about reading on the iPad and backlit displays. He makes some good points about why reading on the iPad’s backlit screen is not the same as reading on your desktop’s backlit screen.
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