Apple announced last Thursday that 450,000 iPads had been sold since arriving in stores the prior Saturday. So who are these early adopters? Not surprisingly, they look a lot like iPhone owners. In fact, 43% already have iPhones and nearly half (48.7%) own iPod touch devices, according to a new iPad user survey from iPhone- and iPad-centric mobile ad network AdColony.
Note: Click HERE to download a more readible PDF version of the iPad Survey
Among other findings, the firm found that 44.3% have a household income level of $100,000 or more and 58% have bachelor's or graduate or other professional degrees. More than two-thirds (65.5%) are male, and 34.5% are female.
In terms of age, people 35 to 44 made up the biggest single segment of iPad owners. Those 25 to 34, 45 to 54, and 55 and over each represented about 20% of the iPad user base. The college-age crowd was 7.5%, and teens were just 3.5%. Like iPhone owners, iPad users skew older, male and more affluent than the general population. As more iPads are sold, the typical user may come to reflect a broader cross-section of consumers.
A study by the mobile ad network in January, for instance, found 57% of iPhone users were male, compared to the 65% reported by AdColony for the iPad. The split among different age groups was also more even for the iPhone than the iPad. That more than 4 in 10 iPad buyers to date have incomes over 100,000 is also eye-catching, and seems likely to even out gradually over other income groups.
That's partly because demographic figures for the former are based on a far larger sample, and about 50 million iPhone and 35 million iPod touches have been sold to date.
While the iPad has been described as a big iPod, its minimum $500 price means that most kids will have to rely on a parent buying one to get their hands on the tablet. So the iPad will definitely skew older than the iPod touch audience, which a separate AdMob study last year found was composed 69% of 13- to-24-year-olds.
So when it comes to the audience it represents, at least initially, the iPad is more like a big iPhone. While brands may have to rejigger their ad formats to take advantage of the iPad's larger screen and unique features, they don't have to recalibrate their messages to a much different segment.
AdColony, a unit of mobile developer Jirbo Inc., specializes in serving video ads in iPhone and iPad apps for clients including CBS Mobile, Initiative, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate, and Scion.
COMMENTARY: We need to keep this iPad Survey in perspective. This survey represents the demographics for the so-called "innovators" or "early adopters" that are the very first consumers to adopt a new product or technology. They are trend-setters, media and technology geeks and the first to adopt new technology products.
Early adopters represent between 10%-15% of all buyers in the first three months of a products life cycle. Assuming that Steve Job's predictions of sales of 10 million iPads in the first year hold true, then the early adopters will purchase 1-1.5 million iPads during the first three months. So far, Apple has sold 450,000 iPads in just the first week following the launch of the device. Therefore, sales to early adopter currently represent 30% to 45% of the projected early adopter. That's a very impressive and phenomenal pace. If Apple can sell just 100,000 iPads per week over the remaining 11 weeks, they will sell another 1,100,000 units for a cumulative total of 1.450 million units which appears to be on pace at the high-end of the early adopter number.
As the survey demographics clearly illustrate, the majority of iPad buyers are Apple evangelists who already own another Apple product. I call this the "Apple Lemming Effect" or "Apple Syndrome", a form of consumer brainwashing that goes back to when Apple was founded. Steve Jobs hooked these consumers when they were teens and they are now the very first buyers of new Apple products. They provide that initial boost that a new product must have in order to be successful.
Courtesy of an article dated April 13, 2010 appearing in MediaPost Publications Online Media Daily
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