Overheating Flap Can't Cool Love for New iPad

The following commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet's guest contributor program, which is separate from the company's news coverage.

NEW YORK (Trefis) -- Concerns about the Apple's (AAPL) iPad heating up to alarming levels seem to have little impact on the tablet's consumer satisfaction ratings, implying that the heating issues are probably a rare occurrence.

A market survey by ChangeWave Research revealed that the new iPad's users seemed more satisfied with the tablet than those using its predecessors. About 82% of the new iPad users said they were "very satisfied" with the new tablet as opposed to about 74% that had said so about the earlier iPads. Moreover, only 6% of the respondents cited the heating issues to be one of the things they disliked about the iPad.

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Most surveys usually do not take the opinions of a huge demography in their calculations, so there is room for error. When the iPhone made its way to Verizon (VZ) last year, breaking the exclusive hold that AT&T (T) had on the popular smartphone, many surveys showed that subscribers would defect to Verizon in large numbers. But that hasn't happened over the past year as AT&T has consistently racked up more number of iPhone activations than Verizon every quarter.

No "Antennagate" Scandal

But an important takeaway from this survey, at a time when the blogosphere is abuzz with concerns that the iPad's bigger battery is causing it to heat up ominously, is that the problem is not widespread. Analogies drawn with the iPhone 4′s antenna and reception issues, which had created a huge uproar forcing Apple to eventually offer a refund or a free case that corrected the flaw, may just be a tad far-fetched.

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In a ChangeWave survey held then to gauge the impact of the infamous "antennagate" scandal, only about two-third (64%) of the respondents found it to be a non-issue. This time, however, the survey shows that a vast majority of the new iPad owners (89%) aren't experiencing the overheating issues. This implies that the problem may only be limited to only a few users and should therefore not have a material impact on the new iPad's sales.

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