Analyst Says iPad Will Have Slow Start in UK

[iDan]

With the UK iPad launch just around the corner on May 28th, it’s about the right time for some analyst or another to pop up and pour cold water on all the excitement. Step forward Mike Stevens, Director of British market research company Simpson Carpenter’s TMT team, who according to a report on TechRadar today says that the iPad is unlikely to be a mass market product, at least initially.

Stevens bases this belief on his research, which looked at four qualitative groups of typical British consumers. “It’s not surprising that many consumers struggle to see how it could fit into their lives,†Stevens told TechRadar, continuing, “Nich groups with specific emotional or functional needs love it; but right now there isn’t a compelling incentive to get mainstream consumers to buy it. Of course this may change once they see how early adopters use it - but in our view the iPad will take longer to achieve the sales growth and wider market impact of the iPhone.â€

Surely this is an overly pessimistic view? Apple will doubtless have some great advertising and promotional tricks up its sleeve for the UK launch and the months beyond, and once the general public starts seeing what it can do, and maybe sees it in some of the average British high street retailers, such as Tesco, Comet, Asda (Walmart), or Argos, it will be flying off the shelves.

By Maura Sutton, iPadForums.net
Source: TechRadar.com

 

[gentlefury]

What a load of bollucks (to keep it on topic). This is everything a consumer product should be!! It is actually less niche than a laptop.

 

[NumbLock]

I doubt it. Look, the international launch is already delayed twice due to demand.

 

[petermillard]

What amazes me is how much this 'survey' is being quoted online - Google it and the first few pages are all repeating variations on the headline. Dig a little deeper though and you discover the 'survey' is based on the responses given by four groups of six people - about as statistically irrelevant as you can get, you might as well just as your mum and dad what they and their friends think of it - and yet the headline is all over the web.

Bizarre - or maybe everyone's just trolling for iPad hits on their sites??

Pete

 

[NumbLock]

What amazes me is how much this 'survey' is being quoted online - Google it and the first few pages are all repeating variations on the headline. Dig a little deeper though and you discover the 'survey' is based on the responses given by four groups of six people - about as statistically irrelevant as you can get, you might as well just as your mum and dad what they and their friends think of it - and yet the headline is all over the web.

Bizarre - or maybe everyone's just trolling for iPad hits on their sites??

Pete

Really? Well taht puts even more doubt on this "report" that was probably sponsored by a company releasing a Tablet soon, hehe.

 

[AlexanderHC]

They said the same thing before the launch in US. They blew those numbers away!
But lets see how it goes.

 

[winwaed]

Isn't the above article just iterating standard business marketing for a new product, rather than a new iteration of an existing product?

Initial sales are to early adopters and typically at a higher price. Over time, volume increases and price drops as the product matures. This is when it becomes the consumer product that is described. It also helps that these consumers will have seen one working by then, and any rough edges will have been smoothed.

Richard

 

[Superbike81]

Quite a few "smart" analysts said the iPad would be a huge failure in the US too.

Some people just want to hate the iPad, they'll do whatever they can do to keep it from succeeding, like using a misleading biased poll for example.