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The majority of iPad purchasers already owned an Apple product, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who conducted a survey of 448 iPad buyers soon after the device’s April 3 release.
After Apple issued an official statement on April 5, stating that some 300,000 iPads had been sold on April 3, Munster also reduced his estimate for iPad sales in 2010 from 5.6 million to 4.3 million, according to Apple Insider.
According to Munster, 74 percent of iPad purchasers were apparently Mac owners, while another 66 percent owned iPhones. While some 13 percent of respondents owned Amazon.com’s Kindle e-reader, some 58 percent of those planned to replace that device with an iPad. Out of the totality of iPad buyers, around 38 percent said they planned to use it to read e-texts.
Munster found that the 16GB iPad was the most popular purchase at 39 percent of respondents, 32 percent bought the 32GB version, and 28 percent chose the 64GB version. Around 78 percent of respondents said they considered no other gadget before deciding to purchase the iPad, while 10 percent said they had considered the Kindle, and 6 percent thought about buying a netbook.
Those numbers roughly correspond with the preorder data from blogger Daniel Tello, who estimated along with Investor Village’s AAPL Sanity Forum that users were evenly split on their purchases of the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB iPads. That group also estimated that some 119,987 iPads were purchased on March 12, the first day of preorder availability.
In response to the question, “What will you use your iPad for?” around 74 percent of Munster’s respondents said, “Surfing the Web”; 38 percent planned for the aforementioned “Reading Books”; 34 percent said, “Email”; 26 percent said, “Watching Video”; 18 percent said, “Playing Games and Apps”; and 8 percent said, “Listening to Music.”
Although some analysts thought, previous to the launch, that the iPad might cannibalize market share from the iPod Touch and perhaps the iPhone, the early numbers from Munster suggest that might not be the case: Only 1 percent of respondents apparently considered purchasing an iPod Touch before choosing the iPad, while another 1 percent considered the iPhone.
A full spreadsheet of Munster’s survey results can be found here.
Apple also announced that 1 million apps for the iPad, along with 250,000 ebooks from the iBookstore, were downloaded on April 3. In a statement, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that the average iPad owner downloaded three apps and “close to one book” within their first few hours of purchase.
The 16GB version of the iPad costs $499 with WiFi, and $629 with WiFi and 3G. The 32GB version costs $599 with WiFi, and $729 with WiFi and 3G. The 64GB version costs $699 for WiFi, and $829 with WiFi and 3G.