Surprised? iPad Apathy Doubles After Announcement

Immediately following Apple’s iPad announcement last week reactions to the device ranged widely both from tech bloggers and from casual observers of the Apple tablet madness. Plenty of people praised the iPad as being revolutionary, others expressed disappointment that it didn’t live up to the (admittedly over-the-top) pre-announcement hype, and still others dismissed it as “just a big iPhone.” Tech journalists and bloggers will argue back and forth on the merits or detriments of the device for the next couple of months, but the key thing in determining if the iPad will be a hit is whether consumers are interested in buying it.

Retrevo Pulse conducted a study to determine consumer interest in the product, comparing answers from before the launch when the tablet was still mythical and the week following its unveiling. Before January 27th, the number of people who’d heard about the device but weren’t interested in buying one was 26%. 19% were interested in seeing what the device looked like and 3% wanted to buy one.

After the announcement, the number of respondents who’d heard about the iPad went up, naturally, but the percentage of those not interested in buying went up to 52%. The percentage of those who definitely wanted to buy it went up to 9%, but the jump in uninterested consumers is pretty significant.

When asked if respondents thought they “needed” an iPad, 49% said no while 3% said yes before the announcement. Afterwards, 61% said no while just 5% said yes.

It seems that the iPad didn’t set the world on fire as many had hoped, though I don’t think this will stop long lines from forming outside of Apple Stores in the days before the launch. I’d definitely be interested in seeing this study repeated a month after the tablets actually start shipping and full reviews are in. When consumers are able to touch and play with the iPad themselves and see how others use the device, their perceptions may change. Though I doubt their distaste for the extra cost 3G adds to the device will go down much.

Where do you fall in this spectrum? Were you excited about the iPad before the official announcement then lukewarm after? Did it just increase your desire to have one seeing what it was capable of?

Click over to Retrevo’s blog for the full results of the study.

image credits: Retrevo