back to article Survey shows strong demand for Apple tablet

Market research from US stats gatherer ChangeWave suggests Apple fans may be delaying laptop purchases just in case the much-rumoured iPad tablet shows up. Earlier this month, ChangeWave asked 3314 consumers about their recent and anticipated buying habits. Together, 18 per cent of respondents said they were very or somewhat …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Brian 62
    Jobs Halo

    Buy what?

    So people are lining up ready to buy something they have no idea what it does, how it works, or if it's even useful for any purpose they might need it for? Certainly a useful survey.

    1. Steve Ives
      Paris Hilton

      Maybe to buy an iPad?

      No - they're putting off their laptop purchase for a week or two so that they don't end up kicking themselves should the iPad be more suited to their needs.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Agreed!

      This is new power for me in debates over whether Apple customers are complete idiots.

    3. Euchrid

      Fair point!

      On the other hand, quite a few people have been commenting on El Reg stories about the tablet, saying why it doesn't interest them (and ipso facto it won't interest anyone else for the same reasons) - personally, I think it's too early to make such judgements, but do find it interesting to read about the mindset of such posters.

      Similarly, most surveys tell us more about who responded rather than what they were responding to. If a company wanted to find out how rumours about an unconfirmed product might impact demand on current products, for instance, then this kind of survey could be handy.

  2. Vision Aforethought
    Jobs Halo

    But will it run full OS X?

    These customers are assuming the tablet will run a fully fledged version of OS X.

    All said, as an iPhone user, I believe the iPhone OS is how computers should work, not OS X. It is naturally intuitive. The PhotoShop app (while of course very very basic) is considerably more intuitive (& fun!) to use than the desktop application thanks to the direct touch screen operation.

    Effectively, Apple have to choose - do they scale down OS X to a smaller form factor device, or scale up the iPhone OS to larger devices?

    1. Gene Cash Silver badge

      Except the iPhone only single-tasks

      Which is one of the many reasons I don't have one, no matter how great the GUI is.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Maybe this is going to change?

        It has been rumoured/reported that the updated iPhone OS will not be restricted in that way.

      2. B 9

        @Gene Cash

        Except the iPhone DOES multitask. Try listening to a song and browsing the web, listening and reading email, listening and playing Scrabble. All work. It's just that it is selective at what it allows to multitask.

        Try getting your facts straight before you post again.

    2. Euchrid

      Well..

      You do realise that the iPhone OS is a version of OS X specifically designed for iPhones?

      There are a number of rumours that iPhone OS 4.0 has coding specifically to do with the tablet, in which case (if true) there's probably going to be a kind of scaling up.

      Until the device (or devices) are released I'm hedging my bets, but am inclined to agree with you that it doesn't need the full OS X.

  3. studentrights
    Jobs Halo

    Only Apple...

    Can form a virtual line for a mystical magical product.

  4. Mobius

    ipad - who cares

    I'm putting off a purchase until the T410s comes out in the UK

  5. Paul Charters
    WTF?

    But...why?

    Really....please...tell me why there's such a buzz over a tablet?

    Tablets aren't really all THAT much use anyway. They aren't easy to type with, they're awkward to carry around and too big to use as a phone. So far the only practical use I've seen for one is network management whilst walking around a large site.

    Now, if they were releasing a wrist-mounted, iPhone-thin but larger-and-longer screened device for communications-on-the-go (a-la-Chuck) I could understand the interest...but I just don't see the excitement...and I did with the iPhone (wouldn't get one, but that's because they're inferior technology with poor battery life).

    We'll see what magic Apple pulls out of the hat, but at the moment no-one has really told me what use all these executives who bought an iPhone because it was the latest cool gadget would possibly get out of such a device.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Locked in crap

    May as well give your soul to Skeletor.

  7. Campbeltonian

    Pretty sensible really

    Regardless of the iSlate rumours, you'd have to be utterly mad to buy any Apple product this close to an event. I'm willing to bet that there was a similar lull in sales this time last year.

  8. Michael 10
    Boffin

    Maybe?

    I'm normally a PC person (occasional fanboi for the lulz). But I would be interested in a good tablet pc. The problem with the ones I've seeen so far is that they're A: three feet thick B: Slow as hell or C: the screen is unresponsive enough that I'd constantly want to either use the keyboard, or wish it had one,

    As much as I hate macs, they tend to get the hardware and the software in the same place at the same time.

    That being said, I feel like I'm not the market for these things, I'd be willing to go say...400 max for an ARM based device, or MAYBE 700 for something with an Atom. And no way I'd go with anything where I'm stuck with an app store, and I'd want a real OS (OSX is fine), and/or the option to put my own onto it.

    Yeah, I feel like these things are going to cost ~1200$...Maybe the fakes will be in the poor university student range

  9. h4rm0ny
    Gates Halo

    Well I'm delaying...

    ...but I'm more interested in seeing what the Microsoft Courier will be like. Does that count?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Sure does

      Duke Nukem Forever runs amazingly on those!

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wonder...

    ...if iphone sales have also dropped off while people wait to see what this i-thingummydoodad© is and does

    1. Andrew James

      iphone sales

      Since a new iPhone typically gets released every summer, i think someone would have to be especially foolish to buy one in the first half of the year anyway, since it will be replaced within a few months by one that does 1 new thing that they will then have to lust after for at least a year.

  11. Glenn Amspaugh
    Jobs Horns

    Desktop share?

    Wait, Apple's desktop share is up to 20%? is that just last quarter sales for installed base? I thought Apple was required by law to have less than 10% market share.

    As for tablet, why wait on a laptop? Picked up new MacBook in October. It's not like the tablets (if they exist) will be available any time soon. And they'll probably be pretty expensive to start with. Wait a couple years, get the cool hardware/software updates in and the price drops and then, yeah, start thinking about getting a laptop.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You'd be surprised

      ..just how damn soon after the press shindigs you can get them to ship their new shiny toys.. I did that with the first gen touch, as I had been in the market for a new mp3 player, and was holding off until the announcement. I didn't have long to wait, after ordering mine on hysteria and knicker-throwing day, I was delighted to see a small and opressively neat parcel arrive soon after.

    2. David Webb
      Gates Halo

      No

      Apples market share is more around 10% if you include both Mac's AND iPhones/iPods into the mix, note sure where this report pulled the 17% figure from but:

      http://www.tuaw.com/2009/01/02/apple-market-share-tops-10-windows-share-lowest-since-tracking/

      Shows 10% when taking both systems into account, probably 0.01% without the iPhone.

  12. The Fuzzy Wotnot
    Happy

    Three choices....

    Choice 1:

    *adopt zombie style gait and mannerisms*

    Apple, good! Shiny stuff, good! Must buy! Unngrrgrh!

    Choice 2:

    * adopt domesticated animal stance, ie. down on all fours * ( no it's not like that! )

    Baaaahh! Shiny! Baahhhh! Must follow others! Baaaaah!

    Choice 3:

    What any sane IT person will do, knock off mid-afternoon Friday, make your way to nearest pub and not a give a toss about computers or IT tech until Monday morning!

    Have a good weekend!

  13. Paul E

    why not ask using the likely price?

    Sorry, you have a product that may appear at $999 and yet they don't ask who would buy it at that price? Yes its interesting to know who will pay $500 or who will pay $700 but why did they not ask who will pay $1000?

  14. Andrew James

    i want...

    a tablet with a full sized holographic projected keyboard with haptic feedback. If Apple announce that next week, I'll buy one.

    If it doesnt have the holographic projected keyboard with haptic feedback, i expect at the very least that it should be capable of predicting the lottery numbers so i can win back the money i paid for it after a few months.

  15. Mark .

    Vaporware

    The only thing there's demand for is inane amount of hype demanded by the media. Give it up already.

    Apple tablet rumours have been around since 2005. *Actual* tablets and colour e-readers have been released as of 2009, yet they are barely covered the media at all. The Apple Istale is vaporware - if and when they release something, then it can be newsworthy.

    And let's wait for actual market data. The Iphone is hyped as if it's the market leader, yet the reality is that Apple have just a few per cent of the market, and all the more successful companies (Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola, RIM) are almost ignored by the media.

    It was bad enough when we just had Apple fanboys. Now it seems the media's been infiltrated by Apple fanboys. What next, a story on Duke Nukem Forever?

  16. Mark .

    multitasking, etc

    "Apples market share is more around 10% if you include both Mac's AND iPhones/iPods into the mix"

    It's interesting to see the actual data. And yes, including the Iphone is complete nonsense - in that case, why not include all other phones? Nokia would slaughter them and indeed possibly Microsoft too.

    "All said, as an iPhone user, I believe the iPhone OS is how computers should work, not OS X. It is naturally intuitive. The PhotoShop app (while of course very very basic) is considerably more intuitive (& fun!) to use than the desktop application thanks to the direct touch screen operation."

    What - doesn't multitask, can't even do basic stuff like Java? Maybe it's good if you want a gadget, or a throwback to computers of the 80s, but not for fully fledged computers. Even for a phone, these are problems, and makes the Iphone more just a glorified feature phone, not a smartphone.

    Admittedly, a lot of people don't need a full computer, just something for the Internet, games and simply applications (and no, Apple weren't the ones to see this first - this concept has been around for years, and hence the reason for the rise of netbooks). But I really hope that general purpose computers don't head down this route. I do predict that Apple will ditch the "Mac" in a few years (which is already now just a trademark for Apple PCs), but I don't see that other PC companies have reason to do so.

    "You do realise that the iPhone OS is a version of OS X specifically designed for iPhones?"

    Common myth, but no. They share the same kernel, Darwin. Darwin is not OS X.

    "Except the iPhone DOES multitask. Try listening to a song and browsing the web, listening and reading email, listening and playing Scrabble."

    By that reason every bog standard phone multitasks, because I can read texts whilst playing music. Your point only works for the built in applications - it can't run more than one 3rd party application.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like