The iPad has played a large part in bringing new customers into the Apple fold, a new study reports, as it shows that about 25 percent of buyers in the U.S. say the iPad is their first-ever Apple product.
The data was released on Thursday by the NPD Group, which found in its “Apple Ecosystem Study” that just 33 percent of U.S. homes own Apple products. But that number is growing well past the 37 million American households Apple devices are currently found in, thanks in large part to the iPad.
“iPad sales are growing much faster than any other Apple product has this soon after launch,” said Ben Arnold, director of industry analysis at NPD. “In fact, one-in-five Apple owner households has one — nearly equivalent to the number that own an Apple computer. This demonstrates the appeal of both the new form factor and Apple’s app ecosystem.”
A majority of U.S. households that have Apple products, 67%, do own an iPod, and 82% of iPod owners said the device was their first Apple product. As the popularity of the iPod has declined, Apple’s new “halo effect” devices are the iPhone and iPad.
“While over 70 percent of long-standing Apple owners began their relationship with the brand by way of the iPod, this number declines to just 57 percent among those entering the Apple franchise in the past two years,” the NPD Group said. “Newcomers to the brand increasingly turn to the iPhone or iPad as their first Apple device, which combined account for one-third of first-time Apple purchases since 2010.”
An average home with Apple products owns 2.4 devices from the company. But they aren’t tied down to just Apple products. Six in ten homes with a Mac also own a Windows PC, and nearly 30% of Apple owners own a phone other than the iPhone.
The data comes from a survey of more than 3,000 consumers conducted by the NPD Group in February. It was balanced to represent U.S. household demographics.
