British consumers like the iPad 2 but think it is pricey
LAST Wednesday Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad 2, a revised design for the tablet that will become available in the US next week and in 25 other countries a fortnight later.
APPLE CREATES BUZZ IN UK
The announcement led to an immediate rise in buzz score in the UK; from +20 on the day of the announcement to +37 by Monday of this week. Looking at this in combination with the attention score, we can see that over half the population have heard something about the iPad in the last two weeks and a vast majority have heard something positive.
BUT IMPACT IS LESS IN AMERICA
Interestingly, the rise in the US was much less marked (admittedly from a higher starting point); going up from +30 to +35 and is already showing signs of declining again.
There is lower base excitement about the iPad in Germany but we have seen a rise there from +13 to +21.
PRICE WEIGHS ON IMAGE
The biggest drag on the index score is value perceptions – in the UK they even have a negative score.
This is further developed by the YouGov TabletTrack, a quarterly survey of a nationally representative and tablet owning audience on tablet perceptions, which shows that price is a key block to the iPad becoming a mass market product with 31 per cent of rejectors saying it is too expensive.
Apple will want to turn the positive buzz it has created into an improvement in value perceptions if it wants to overcome that barrier to purchase.
CONSUMERS IN WAIT AND SEE MODE
In all three countries there has been a rise in the index score (which combines the sentiment scores on six key measures) but that increase has been much less dramatic than buzz (from 17 to 21 in the UK for example).
This suggests that excitement has been created but most people are waiting for more evidence before they deliver a verdict.
Stephan Shakespeare is chief executive of YouGov.