The main reasons consumers want Apple’s upcoming tablet device? Mostly for the same things they do back on their desktop PC or laptop, according to research.
Consumers, if they owned an iPad, are most likely to use it for web browsing and emailing, according to a comScore sample of 2,176 taken ahead of the gadget’s April 3 retail date.
Many media publishers are scurrying to cram combinations of their print products and websites in to iPad apps – but the research shows people are more likely to use the web than to read books, magazines or newspapers, and downloading apps rates as the second least likely activity to do on the pad.
But this may be because those who don’t own such a gadget are unfamiliar with apps themselves. And it’s not as disappointing as the outlook for action games, which rates as the least desirable iPad activity.
The iPad at least presents one readymade market of media buyers – iPhone and iPod touch owners. “52 percent of iOwners said they were willing or very willing to pay for newspaper and magazine subscriptions specially formatted for e-readers, compared to just 22 percent of non-iOwners,” comScore (NSDQ: SCOR) says.
Another key finding – Kindle and iPad are basically neck-and-neck in the minds of potential consumers – both devices are going to shift plenty of units in the next few months…
