Is the iPad Beyond the “Early Adopter” Stage?
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When the iPad was announced, many were predicting the tablet was simply going to be bought by Apple fanboys. In other words, many were predicting the iPad probably would not go beyond the Apple fanboys “early adopter” stage.
The recent strong iPad sales and earnings numbers reported by Apple will simply refute those earlier statements. As we reported earlier today, Apple has posted tremendous 3rd quarter results for their 2010 fiscal year. Apple sold 3.27 million iPads during the quarter and was able to book $2.166 billion in iPad related sales.
When I look at different market numbers and research studies across the industry, everything seems to show that Apple may have already conquered the so called iPad “early adopter” stage.
ITIC, which is a research and consulting firm that covers a wide variety of technology topics, found in a study that many IT managers are already using iPads. According to ITIC, as many as 23% already own Apple’s tablet, and 18% plan to buy one within the year. Of course, the assumption here is that eventually there will be a “spillover effect” because employees could find multiple ways to use the iPad for more efficient tasks across their companies.
According to ITIC, it seems that 82% of companies were going to accelerate integration with iOS devices such as the iPad and iPhone to enable their employees to get access to corporate e-mail, data and apps.
iSuppli, which is another market intelligence company, just increased their 2010 iPad sales estimates. They believe that Apple will ship about 13 million iPads in 2010.
Wells Fargo is already getting iPads for many of their employees. It took Wells Fargo a couple of years to analyze the iPhone before making a decision to let their employees use the device at work. The iPad only took weeks to get the official clearance by the company.
Other companies like Daimler AG’s Mercedes Benz officially announced they’re using the iPad for tasks such as work e-mail, approving shipping orders and for auto-finance options.
SAP AG has employees that are using the iPad to access business applications, briefing documents, customer information and other data. The same goes for Audi and other automobile industries, the airline industry, the healthcare industry and many others.
Finally, according to some Apple statements, the iPad is currently being tested by 50% of the Fortune 100 companies. This is quite a large number this early in the game.
It’s hard to predict how the market will continue to evolve. But, the iPad sales results are too strong and too steady to ignore. The impact on the enterprise market is not that severe, at least for now. Microsoft and RIM still have strong market share numbers.
However, the trends are showing that many companies are opening the door to the iPad in many ways. The device has dominated the consumer market and has infiltrated the corporate world.
