iPad owners tend to be older and have more money, but as tablets have become more mainstream and more widely distributed, those high-end demographics are shifting. According to leading market research company, The NPD Group’s new study, Tablet Adoption and Insights Report, more than 40 percent of iPad owners have a household income of $100,000 or more compared to 26 percent of non-iPad owners. More recent tablet owners make less money and are younger than the early adopters, with buyers at the end of 2011 being 50 percent more likely to have an income under $45,000, and 33 percent more likely to be under 34 years of age.
“As the demographic of the tablet owner continues to change the tablet market is beginning to take on a new role,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD, in the press release. “We are seeing some of the tasks traditionally performed on devices, such as PCs, now being performed on the tablet. In fact, all five of the top activities shifted towards the tablet between early and late 2011.
Yet, regardless of usage trends, the vast majority of consumers are not rejecting other devices. Only 10 percent of tablet owners have decided they don’t need a PC notebook that they were once considering. This same trend is also reflected among non-tablet owners, 26 percent of whom say they are likely to buy a notebook in the next year, while just 18 percent say they will purchase a tablet.
“Even as consumers increasingly use tablets for tasks that were once exclusively done on their PC, they continue to plan new PC purchases,” said Baker. “Usage is still evolving and most people, being inherently conservative in their device outlook, continue to hedge their bets on their device preference by planning to maintain an array of products to afford them maximum flexibility.”
Methodology: A U.S. rep sample of more than 1,114 consumers completed the survey through NPD’s online panel in December 2011. A pre-identified sample of 3,600 tablet owners were part of the survey.
Source: The NPD Group, Inc.
It’s misleading when they say “household” income..
Husband and wife making $50k each qualifies. And $50 isn’t a ton of money a year.
You got that right. I’ve got a 39 year old step son living in the basement. Between the three of us, all in our maximum earning years, our household income is a bit north of a quarter million.
I only get to play with less than half of that.
The title makes it seem the iPad is elitist. Not a good way to advertise a product.
It is an NPD Group article. It isn’t an advertisement.
However, I agree with your sentiment, and I have cautioned MDN more than a few times that it is counterproductive to emphasize the relative wealth of Mac users.
Give me the Android refuse to work players with themselves parent basement dwellers any day.
Oh what a dire recession
Good luck with Amazon trying get media content money from $199 Kindle Fire users. Guaranteed they’ll be able to get blood out of a beet before getting much more money from Fire users. The worst group to bet future earnings on is cheapskates.
Apple products aren’t meant just for the elite. It would be that they’re merely targeting discerning consumers with above average intelligence to match their paychecks.
Exactly the reason to keep iPad 2 around at lower price point after iPad 3 ships.
Apple’s tablet is for the poor! Approximately 60 percent of iPad owners have a household income of less than 100,000 dollars!
See, it’s all in how you report it.
The media are masters at it.
We are the 60%!!