A near majority of those with an Apple iPad say they don't think it's worth the money according to a recent survey:
Only 42 per cent of the 1,531 users asked said they use their iPad every day.
In fact, nearly half of the participants – at 46 per cent – don't think they're getting their money's worth out of the Apple tablet, and 18 per cent said they would consider selling it because they hardly ever use it.
25% of the users said they used their iPad once a week or less. Of that 25% though, half did have something of a good reason. They only have the Wi-Fi model, not 3G, so it's not in fact all that good for carrying around to use on the move (the UK is pretty short of public free access points, unlike the US).
Unfortunately the survey was only asking about apple products, and even then specifically about the iPad. So we don't know how this compares to other electronic or consumer computing goods. What's the rate of laptops or netbooks (both quite a bit cheaper in today's market) that get purchased and not used? Or perhaps only get hardly or lightly used?
This is information we just don't have, just as we don't know how these iPad numbers relate to other tablet usage. Is the usage of a Samsung Galaxy running Google's Android higher or lower for example?
In fact, we don't even know what the usage of smart phones is like. How many people buy a smart phone we know, as we can see the shipping numbers. How many continue to use them we're not sure, maybe some people move back to hte older style of phone. And how many people actually use the advanced facilities of a smart phone we're really not sure about. You've been able to send texts, tweets on Twitter, emails, from phones for a long time now. How many people go beyond that into what smart phones can really do, well, we're really are not sure at all.
So, while we know that a near majority of iPad users don't think they're worth the money....well, in the UK experience at least....what we don't know is how that evaluation stacks up against any of the other consumer electronics devices out there.
