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Some interesting Stats just came my way via Nielsen Wire this May 5th 2011. It appears that Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs confidence is not only spot on as to his March 2nd 2011 comments of a coming “Post-PC Era”, but it may be the case where his Tablet, the Apple iPad, is the sole reason for such a phenomenon. According to IDC Stats from January 2011, 87% of Tablets sold are Apple iPads. No doubt these numbers has improved since then and the Nielsen Stats are evidence of this trend in the now nascent Tablet market, 99% of which Apple owned in the Fourth Quarter of 2011.

Well the Nielsen Stats suggest that the IDC figures have dropped by about 5%, coasting in at about 82% of the US Market as the below graphic from Nielsen shows:

So with all those Tablets shipped, which may not necessarily be the amount of Tablet purchased in the US, what do American users surveyed use their Tablet to do? The following breakdown of the Nielsen Stats is interesting and revealing:

31% – Easy to carry/take with you
21% – Ease of interface/OS
15% – Fast Start Up/Off
12% – Convenience
12% – Size
12% – Can use in multiple locations
11% – Fast Speed
10% – Like Device Features (calendar, apps, etc.)
7% – Lightweight

Portability, intuitiveness and its speed appear to be the main reasons why the Apple iPad is so popular. The six (6) categories below the top three (3) in the list appear to be nuance categories that are subsets of the top three (3) i.e. the same three (3) broken down further. Again these Nine Reasons are best illustrated on a graph, courtesy of Nielsen:

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Interestingly, the Apple iPad is beginning to supplant other consumer electronics devices in the home, such as Laptops, PC and even TV’s as I had pointed out in my article Are we witnessing Laptop and PC Extinction?.

This is made obvious in the below graph, again courtesy of Nielsen, with the blue section of the bar graph indicating increased usage of the Apple iPad to replace the use of certain electronic device, the largest behavior changes being in “Portable Gaming” and “Internet Connected TV” ranging in at 26 and 25% respectively.

The Apple iPad as a Gaming Platform was always obvious ever since the launch of the First Gen Apple iPad on Saturday 3rd April 2010. So too was its IPTV and streaming potential, even with Netflix!

Good to note that only 10% bought it for what it could do, a criticism of those who call the Apple iPad a “fad” but who have no understanding of marketing.

This particular statistic is a very important indication of the Apple iPad’s popularity transcending even hardcore Apple Fans to regular folk who have never bought or used an Apple product, muchless even a PC.

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This bodes well for the eventual mass adoption of the up and coming Tablets so far analyzed by yours truly, as Developer support is not enough to carry these device to the point of empowering the “Post-PC Era”. It also indicates that future users of computers will mainly be used to touch-typing and Gesture based interactions with computers.

Looks like when Nintendo launched the Nintendo Wii in 2006AD and Apple launched the Apple iPhone in 2007AD, they were both onto something: electronics gadgets whose usage is based in using intuitive naturally known body movements!

People have to like the idea of a Tablet and its qualities, much in the same way people like the idea of driving a Bugatti Veyron, but may not necessarily want if for driving. It is this desire that the Apple iPad has created, plus the convenience of Docking Cradles that will result in the future mass adoption of Tablets.

And as the participants in future surveys show an increased tendency to use the Apple iPad as a replacement for other gadgets, the sales of other Tablets will accelerate.

At that point, the Post PC Era will commence in Nine Moves…..

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