Nearly two years after its debut, Apple's iPad still dominates tablet sales. A new survey points to some reasons why, including the iPad's appeal to people who use non-Apple smartphones.
It’s logical to think people who own a certain type of smartphone – one running Google's Android or Research In Motion's BlackBerry operating system, for example – would prefer to buy tablets based on the same software or related software. Matching the operating system should yield a more consistent user experience and ensure that at least some apps can be shared between devices. A new survey from market researcher Maritz Research, however, indicates a preference for iPads even among people that own Android, BlackBerry and Microsoft Windows mobile phones.
The survey, which was conducted online in mid-to-late November, polled about 2,500 people across the country. Respondents were asked which of 14 tablets (from 11 different manufacturers) they would choose if they were to buy a tablet. For the most part, they pointed to the iPad regardless of the smartphone operating system they currently used.
This was particularly true of BlackBerry users. More than half (53%) of survey respondents who identified themselves as BlackBerry users said they would like an iPad if they were to buy a tablet. A much smaller percentage of BlackBerry owners opted for the other two most popular choices in the study: Amazon's Kindle Fire (12%) or Samsung's Galaxy Tab (11%).
Only 8.5% of BlackBerry users expressed preference for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. This relative lack of enthusiasm among RIM's own customers may explain, in part, why the company has struggled to sell the PlayBook since its April debut. Last week, RIM announced a $485 million write-off on its unsold PlayBook inventory.
Android users showed a similar predilection for iPads. Respondents who identified as Android phone users favored the iPad over the Kindle Fire and Galaxy Tab with 41% indicating preference for the iPad, 15% for the Kindle Fire and 19% for the Galaxy Tab. (Both the Kindle Fire and Galaxy Tab run on Android though the Fire’s software has been highly customized by Amazon.)
Windows Mobile/Phone users exhibited comparable characteristics with 40% selecting preference for the iPad, 16% for the Kindle Fire and 12% for the Galaxy Tab. The study did include one Windows-powered tablet, HP’s Slate 500, but few Windows Mobile/Phone users said they would opt for it.
There was one group that did show loyalty to its smartphone brand: iPhone owners, who overwhelmingly (77%) said they preferred the iPad over the Kindle Fire (8%) and Galaxy Tab (5%).
Of course, survey respondents may simply have been expressing their belief that the iPad is the best tablet on the market and were not highly influenced by considerations of brand loyalty and synergy. It's also true that it can still be difficult to share mobile apps between smartphones and tablets, even when the devices are made by the same company.
In addition, preference is only one facet of market success. For that reason, the survey made note of which respondents had purchased tablets within the past three months and which devices they had actually bought.
The results of that inquiry underscored the iPad’s power in the market while also signaling signs of traction for other tablets. Though the iPad was the single most popular tablet respondents purchased in the last three months (at 50% of respondents), 13% of respondents said they had bought the Kindle Fire. Michael Allenson, a Maritz senior strategic consulting director who led the study, considers that a strong showing for the Amazon device. The Kindle Fire, he noted in an interview, had just gone on sale (following a pre-order phase) at the time the survey was conducted.
Samsung's Galaxy Tab also had its fans, accounting for 9% of respondents' tablet purchases within the past three months. In his interpretation of the results, Allenson wrote, “As the [tablet] market continues to mature and include more mainstream consumers, it is likely that there will be room for other [non-Apple] brands to flourish.”
That is particularly true at the lower end of the market. Pricing appeared to strongly influence the survey results. Respondents who said they were willing to pay $500 or more for a tablet mostly chose the iPad as their preferred device. Those wanting to spend a medium amount ($250-$500) favored the Galaxy Tab over the Kindle Fire. Bargain hunters seeking tablets under $250 mostly expressed preference for the Kindle Fire.
That last finding isn't surprising since the Kindle Fire is the only one of the three devices that can be purchased new and fully featured for under $250. Other low-cost tablets such as the Coby Kyros were included in the study but didn't attract enough support to be listed in the summary of findings, says Allenson.
In a sign of how much the tablet market is expanding at the lower end of the price spectrum, 64% of survey respondents who had purchased a tablet in the past three months bought their tablets for under $500.
The emergence of lower-priced tablets is also encouraging consumers to purchase the devices on impulse, Allenson theorizes. Seventeen percent of respondents who had recently bought tablets said they purchased them as a last-minute decision.
