New Consumer Analytics research from Parks Associates indicates consumers continue to prefer Apple over the other top brands in tablets, with 44% of holiday tablet shoppers planning to purchase an iPad 2 versus 24% opting for the Kindle Fire. The Microsoft Surface comes in at 21% with the Google Nexus last at 12%.
"Apple continues to gain strength in key product categories," said John Barrett, Director, Consumer Analytics, Parks Associates. "In the tablet market, consumers initially expressed interest in the Microsoft Surface, but once pricing and product details were announced, holiday intentions to purchase a Microsoft Surface dropped to 21% in Q4 from 45% in Q3."
Parks Associates' holiday survey from October-November 2012 shows, for the first time, more U.S. broadband households plan to purchase a tablet than a laptop, netbook, or Ultrabook. Thirty-three percent of U.S. broadband households now own a tablet, up from 15% last year, and Parks Associates forecasts 66% of U.S. broadband households will have a tablet by 2013.
"The iPad mini launch could cannibalize some iPad sales," Barrett said. "When presented with this new product option, 40% of iPad intenders opted for an iPad mini."
The new research also indicates headphone/earbud products continue to benefit from tablet and smartphone adoption. This category is in the top-five CE product purchases for the second year in a row.
From the article, "Report: Apple iPad Lights Kindle's Fire."
