Travel content and planning service GeckoGo has released results of a survey of members and their willingness to jump on the iPad bandwagon – but in short: mixed results.
The company asked 750 travellers using its Facebook application whether they would be interested in buying the latest in Apple’s long line of devices and just one in five of those who had heard of it (71%) saying they were very interested in the product.
A further 18% say they are interested and another 30% somewhat interested.
Some might read it as overwhelming enthusiasm for the new product (68% of the two-thirds with recognition of the product), but given the rapid rise of mobile and its travel functionality and seemingly yet another device to consider, it may be just the “very interested” respondents that would go to the next stage and buy the product.
Nevertheless, 60% of those interested in the product would take the device on their travels.
Of the top potential uses, those very interested in the iPad say…
- Browse the web – 68%
- Email – 62%
- View pictures – 61%
- Travel on travels – 60%
- Watch videos – 46%
- Listen to music – 45%
- Read eBooks – 37%
- Play games – 17%
The interesting thing to note here is that two of the major elements of the iPad demonstrated by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at its launch in January 2010 (games and reading books) are at the foot of the usage table.
I’m interested in seeing the results of the survey done once people have had a chance to examine and play with the iPad. Many panned the iPhone before it ever saw the light of day! This is the reason why Steve Jobs doesn’t produce and design products based on consumer research and focus groups. Smart decision as history proves.
I think you’re spot on, Joe. It’s hard for a lot of people to build enthusiasm for a product that they can’t see or touch. On the day of first sale, there sill be lines out the door from the apple evangelists but there will be a long tail of purchasers who will buy only once they’ve been able to experience it. I think it’s going to sell very well, especially within the traveling public.
I’m with Joe, word for word. I’d also like to see how many respondents there were…
The iPad isn’t quite there yet, but most people I mention it to are keen to get one. At the price they’re advertising, it’s basically a crime not to get one
My apologies – should’ve put it in the text. 750 respondents.
Thanks Kevin for sharing these results!
@ Joe – agree, it’ll be interesting to see what the uptake is when it becomes widely available. Most of my friends were actually really excited about the iPhone whereas the iPad reception has been slightly more muted. The iPhone dropped in price quite a bit from the first generation to the 3rd, so I wonder how many people will wait in anticipation of the same trend?
The report is available in full at: http://www.geckogo.com/research/
Kevin. Do you believe Facebook surveys are a sound research method?
Also, don’t you think 20% of people who’ve heard of it saying that they’re very interested is actually a big number?
Personally, I wouldn’t call that a lukewarm response, nor would I bet against the product.
…Robert
@rob – Facebook surveys are probably a quick and easy barometer of web-savvy travellers, but nothing more scientific than that. A sample size of 750 is also healthy enough and therefore noteworthy, thus why we covered the results.
20% might be considered by some to be a big number, but it is worth remembering that this is a new (and yet another) device without all the features of a smartphone or laptop, so once all the KoolAid has been consumed and the hype subsides I doubt strongly whether immediately one in five travellers will buy an iPad.
How about we bet $20 that iPad will be a huge success
That said, in my humble (?) opinion, 750 sample size is irrelevant when the sampling method is so poor
Best…RMB
@rob – you’ve clearly got a lot more money than I. How about we make it $10.
Hi Rob,
What are your concerns towards using Facebook as a survey recruitment source? This survey was conducted via our Facebook application Travel Brain, which has a userbase of 730,000 members. We recruited users via a notification to take a survey on Surveymonkey. Our recruitment question was “What do you take with you on your travels”, within which we specifically dived into iPad related questions. It isn’t a random sample, and there is admittedly some response bias in that the respondents are self-selected travellers, but I don’t think that should influence the iPad related questions that much. The demographics of the survey were disclosed and I’d say representative of the population Internet at large, with a slight skew younger to a 25-34 year median age. We chose to do this survey on Facebook as it allowed us to get the vast majority of our responses within a few hours (though it took us a little longer to actually put the report together.
)
Would love to hear more of your thoughts on this!
Cheers,
Pokin
Re “The interesting thing to note here is that two of the major elements of the iPad demonstrated by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at its launch in January 2010 (games and reading books) are at the foot of the usage table.”
Remember that Steve was referring to expected usage among all consumers who would buy the iPad. Your survey was among a base of travelers, which is a subset of the consumer base. You’re assuming that the traveler subset is representative of the whole, which is very likely not correct.
We included questions about how many domestic and how many international trips respondents took per year. It looked like reading books and playing games remained at the bottom of the potential usage table across all levels of travel frequency. There doesn’t seem to be a significant negative correlation between frequency of travel and interest in using the iPad to play games and read eBooks.
Of course this could change once consumers start using the iPad, but it doesn’t seem like games and eBooks are going to be of primary importance to the earliest adopters at least.