U.S. Customers Are Tablet-Hungry, and Not Just for the iPad
Surveys reveal that a substantial chunk of U.S. customers plan to buy a tablet in the next year, and it's not necessarily going to be an iPad. — Fourteen percent, or 27 million U.S. online consumers, intend to buy some kind …
Context & Ripple Effects
When Apple's iPad arrived in spring 2010, the first measurable effect showed up in someone else's category: by late May, a survey found 30 percent of netbook shoppers had switched their purchase to an iPad outright. That made the tablet look like a one-company story — Apple absorbing demand that would otherwise have flowed to low-cost laptops.
This new August survey reframes that picture. Fourteen percent of U.S. online consumers — roughly 27 million people — now say they intend to buy a tablet within the year, and the intent is explicitly not pinned to the iPad. If even part of that stated demand is real and vendor-neutral, the category is bigger than any single device, which changes what competitors and component makers should plan for.
First-order effects
- Roughly 27 million U.S. consumers are now in-market for a tablet within twelve months, giving Apple a much larger addressable audience than early adopters alone — but also telling rivals like Samsung, Dell, and HP that a non-trivial share of that demand is unattached to the iPad brand.
- Netbook vendors face a second squeeze: after losing switchers to the iPad in May, they now compete for the same 27 million buyers with devices positioned as cheaper tablet alternatives rather than small laptops.
Second-order effects
- Stated intent this size gives hardware suppliers and carriers a reason to commit capacity and distribution to Android and Windows tablet lines ahead of holiday 2010, betting that unattached demand converts to purchases once rival devices actually reach shelves.
- Apple's pricing power gets tested for the first time: if a meaningful slice of the 27 million buys a sub-iPad-priced competitor, Apple faces its first real decision on whether the iPad's entry price holds or moves.
Third-order effects
- If purchase-intent surveys keep showing demand exceeding what one vendor can serve, the tablet settles into a two-layer market structure — a premium iOS tier and a volume tier of licensed-OS challengers — mirroring how smartphones stratified around 2009–2010.
- Survey-based demand signals become a standard input for component allocation and carrier shelf space, meaning stated consumer intent (not just shipped units) starts shaping who gets manufacturing priority in the category.
The trend: Purchase-intent data through mid-2010 points to the tablet becoming a genuine multi-vendor product category rather than an extension of the iPad's launch halo.