Apple’s iPad multimedia tablet device might not ship until April 3, but a significant number of consumers are already thinking about buying it, according to the results of a survey to be released late Monday.
Market research firm comScore said Internet users it surveyed were as aware of the upcoming iPad as they are of Amazon’s Kindle, the dominant e-book reader today. Fifteen percent of the survey respondents said they were “seriously considering” buying the iPad in the next three months, which was slightly higher than the 14 percent of respondents who are considering buying the Kindle in the same period.
The market is still up for grabs — comScore found that only 6 percent of those it surveyed owned a Kindle and 4 percent owned Sony’s e-book reader.
“The tablet and e-book reader market is developing at breakneck pace right now, and Apple’s entry into the market is sure to accelerate mainstream adoption,” said Serge Matta, an executive vice president at comScore, in a statement.
Despite concerns that the iPad could threaten the netbook market, the Reston, Va., firm said only 22 percent planned to use it in lieu of a netbook. A more likely scenario is that the iPad could replace the smaller iPod Touch; 37 percent of respondents said they would substitute the iPod Touch with the iPad.
When Apple unveiled the iPad in January, it presented it as a multimedia device in between an iPhone and a MacBook computer. Not surprisingly, respondents said they are likely to use the iPad to browse the Internet, send email, watch video and movies, listen to music and read books.
But respondents also said they wished the iPad had a built-in camera, multi-tasking capabilities and a bigger screen as large as a laptop or desktop computer.
ComScore said those who already own an iPhone or an iPod Touch are more than twice as willing to pay for newspaper and magazine subscriptions formatted for e-readers as those who do not. Half of those who already own e-readers also spent at least $60 on e-books in the past three months.
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