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The new Apple iPad is a success, suggest two new industry reports on adoption and satisfaction.
Less than a month since its arrival, the new iPad already accounts for 10 percent of all iPad traffic, according to Chitika Insights. Its iPad Tracker, a metric for tracking adoption rates of the new iPad in real time, found the newest iPads adoption rate to have passed 5 percent in just four days.
The new iPad has been steadily gaining share on a daily basis, the firm said in an April 9 report. While this rapid increase can likely be attributed to early adopters of the product, a more impressive feat lies in the tablets sustained growth in share since its release.
On April 8, the new iPad passed the 10 percent mark, even hitting an all-time high of 16 percent of iPad traffic, the Tracker found. Californians are the biggest buyers of the new iPad, accounting for nearly 12 percent of ownership, followed by Wisconsin, with a 10.42 percent share and Connecticut at 10.37 percent. Hawaii is next up, followed by New York, Massachusetts, Utah and Nevada.
The 10 percent threshold is much more than an indicator of adoption; symbolic meaning cannot be dismissed, said the report, adding that consumers are on the verge of viewing the idea of a tablet as synonymous with the iPad.
Consumers certainly are smitten, at any rate. Despite reports of some units becoming overly warm, new iPad owners are even happier with their devices than previous iPad buyers. While 74 percent of previous owners said they were very satisfied, 82 percent of new users said the same, ChangeWave Research, a division of the 451 Research, said in an April 2 report. Another 16 percent of new iPad owners said they were somewhat satisfied in March, while 23 percent of earlier-model iPad owners said the same in February.
What do new iPad owners like best about their new tablets? Overwhelmingly, users point to the Retina display. It was cited by 75 percent of new owners as their favorite feature. Long battery life followed, with 22 percent of votes (users were allowed to choose three options), with 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) right behind, at 20 percent. Users are also big fans of the new iPads quick processor, which garnered 20 percent of votes, followed by the 5-megapixel iSight camera, with 18 percent of votes.
What did they like the least? The iPads ability to get toasty has put it in the news: Consumer Reports found the new iPad capable of heating to 122 degrees while running an intense game in bright, 90-degree conditions. However, this didnt stop it from recommending the iPad, which it was so impressed with (it also really liked the Retina display) that it actually recalibrated the measures by which tablets are now measured. Consumers, likewise, largely gave the heating a pass. According to ChangeWave, they were much less keen on the cost of the new iPad (voted by 26 percent of users), the cost of its wireless data plan (23 percent) and its size/weight (8 percent).
Its heating issue ranked well down the list, taking sixth place, behind also the iPads amount of flash storage and ability to integrate with other devices.
Simply put, the heat issue does not appear to be a perceived problem for the overwhelming majority of new iPad owners, according to ChangeWave.