Who Bought the First iPads?

Most of the people who lined up in New York and Minneapolis to purchase the iPad on Saturday were already committed Apple users, according to the results of a survey of 448 iPad buyers by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

Fully 74 percent of respondents were Mac users (26 percent presently ownanother kind of PC). About 66 percent own iPhones.

As far as intended application use, 74 percent planned to use their iPads to surf the Web; 38 percent to read books; 32 percent to e-mail; 26 percent to watch video; 18 percent to play games and other apps; eight percent to listen to music.

Munster apparently believes Apple has successfully created a new niche between the smartphone and laptop. Some of us are not yet convinced of that. The overwhelming percentage of respondents think they will use their iPads as they would use their laptops or PCs: to surf the Web. The 38 percent who plan to read books are using the iPad as an e-book reader. The other notable application interests also are routinely conducted on existing devices such as MP3 players, PCs or laptops.

About all one properly might conclude is that initial early adopters are Apple enthusiasts. Many of use would guess that people aren't yet sure what they really will do, and how the device might ultimately be positioned in the broader mobile consumer electronics arena.

At least so far, half of the intended positioning seems to be clear, though. Nobody thinks the iPad replaces their smartphone. The key question remains whether iPad represents a new category, or reshaping of an existing category (namely PCs and laptops or netbooks).

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