Apple Faces iPad Challenge: Survey
CUPERTINO, Calif.
-- Love it or hate it,
Apple's
(AAPL) - Get Report
continues to grab the
headlines
, although a new survey says that the tech giant is struggling to convince consumers to buy the technology.
|
Apple's many devotees will undoubtedly greet the survey's findings with skepticism, particularly at a time when conflicting studies of the iPad's popularity are emerging.
Online electronics retailer
Retrovo
recently circulated two surveys to customers to gauge responses to Apple's latest product offering. The first survey, sent out to 1,000 randomly-selected consumers, took place in mid-January before the iPad launch; the second came after the
.
Despite all the media
brouhaha
surrounding the
, Retrovo says that the device has received something of a lukewarm reception from consumers.
Unsurprisingly, the number of people who said they were aware of the iPad tablet device jumped from 48% to 82% in the two surveys, although Retrovo found many consumers unwilling to spend money on the new tech.
In the company's initial study, some 26% of respondents said that they had heard of the iPad but were not interested in buying one -- a figure that climbed to 52% in the second survey.
Consumers were also asked whether they thought they needed an iPad. In the first study, some 49% responded no, with even more people -- 61% -- giving the same answer after the iPad's launch.
Priced between $499 and $829, the iPad comes with a capacity of either 16-Gbytes, 32-Gbytes of 64-Gbytes. Wi-Fi versions of the technology will ship in late March, with 3G iPads coming in April.
According to Retrovo, the second survey indicates Apple's failure to convince new buyers to consider the iPad. "Not only did Apple fail to convince new buyers, it may have lost many potential buyers who now say they don't need an Apple tablet computer," it said in a statement.
Apple's iPad continues to be a divisive technology, with
and
against each other.
Over-hyped and in some quarters even ridiculed, the iPad is nonetheless one of the most talked-about technology launches of recent years and has re-focused much of the tech sphere's attention on tablet devices. Internet giant
(GOOG) - Get Report
is quietly planning its own
, a move that follows tablet launches from
Dell
(DELL) - Get Report
,
Hewlett-Packard
(HPQ) - Get Report
and
Asus
.
Also on Monday,
TheStreet released results of its own iPad poll
, which cast a more positive light on the product. Approximately 81% of those polled said that the iPad will revolutionize technology, underling the extent of Apple zealotry among many consumers.
-- Reported by James Rogers in New York
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