The iPad, now in its third iteration, continues to be the biggest selling tablet device even two years after its launch. While this is not news, survey research firm ChangeWave set out to ascertain what the consumer reaction is towards the ever changing tablet landscape and how firm the iPad’s dominion is over the tablet segment.
The results are pretty much as we expected, with the iPad reigning supreme whichever way you look at it. That said, there are a few surprises, since the Amazon Kindle Fire (recently considered to be the first competitor to the Apple iPad) is now finding itself on an increasingly slippery slope. It is Samsung that has made its case stronger, with increasing sales of its entire Galaxy Tab range.
To put things in numbers, a majority of 73 percent of those who intend to buy a tablet are most likely to go for the iPad, while Kindle Fire and Galaxy Tab stands at 8 and 6 percent. All other tablet makers make up 3 percent. Also, 7 percent of those polled are keen to buy a tablet within the next 90 days.
Both the Kindle Fire’s and the Galaxy Tab’s performances have been interesting, with the decline of the Fire and the incline of the Galaxy Tab. The Amazon tablet was hailed as being capable of double digit growth (ChangeWave research had predicted) on the back of strong demand during the last holiday season. For the Galaxy Tabs, it was then a battle for survival against a legal onslaught from Apple that kept the Samsung tablets out of action for the better part of 2011. Surprisingly, Amazon’s loss is Samsung’s gain during the first quarter, with twice the number now planning to buy the Galaxy Tab than in the last quarter.
Of course, Amazon is still in the race and the online retailer will try every trick it knows of bring back consumer interest to the Kindle Fire. An ad backed Kindle Fire at low initial cost will help, while the second iteration of the tablet is already in the making. Samsung, on the other hand, has launched slightly refurbished versions of the 7 and 10.1 inch Galaxy Tab, both of which have been priced quite reasonably at $250 and $400 respectively. Also, Samsung has new tablets up its sleeve, some based on the Windows 8 OS.
The survey was carried out on 2,893 consumers from North America to reveal consumer preferences as far as tablet PCs are concerned.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.
