An interesting report was released Thursday morning by the NPD Group which found that only 33 percent of American homes own at least one Apple product. The report found that around 37 million households in the U.S. currently have at least one Apple product, but that number is increasing and is expected to keep increasing thanks to the iPad.
According to Ben Arnold the Director of Industry at NPD:
“iPad sales are growing much faster than any other Apple product has this soon after launch. 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.”
The report goes onto to find that of the 37 million households that do have Apple products, 67 percent of them own an iPod, with 82 percent of iPod owners who were asked saying the media device was their first Apple product.
The NPD Group went on further to say:
“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. 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.”
While these figures are encouraging to Apple stockholders they might be surprised to learn that majority of households that own Apple products aren’t solely dedicated to the Cupertino-based company. In fact 60 percent of homes that own a Mac in America also own a Windows PC. Also 3 out of 10 homes that own an iPhone also have another smartphone in the household.
Personally, I see these figures as a sign that we are still in a major transitional phase as far as home computing and mobile devices go. I think Apple is in priming themselves to be the General Electric of electronics.
