The holiday shopping season meant big sales of products ranging from cameras to printers, and PCs – until now, it seems. This year, the most-sought-after products appear to have been tablets and smartphones. And the competition is fierce in this section: Apple, Samsung and Amazon are all in the race for consumers. Apple, however, stands out, as the most-sought-after product is the iPad, according to a Parks Associates survey cited by Bloomberg.
But that survey isn’t the only one to serve as evidence for an iPad Christmas: you may recall that Gene Munster observed 9% higher traffic in Apple Stores this year when the holiday shopping season kicked off the iPad was the most mentioned product on #BlackFriday. The Localytics study clearly shows that the Black Friday–Cyber Monday sales propelled the iPad Air usage up by 51% compared to a week before the shopping event.
Retailers have adapted their marketing strategy to consumer demand: speaking with Bloomberg, Target’s vice president of electronics said that during the past few years promotions and sales “were focused on notebooks, and this year has been all about the new iPad Air and iPad mini devices, and Samsung tablets.”
In fact, IDC said that tablet shipments are on the right track to rise more than 54% in 2013 to 221.3 million units. That compares to “virtually nothing” in 2010.
When asked for a comment by Bloomberg journalists, an Apple spokeswoman referred to Tim Cook’s earlier statement of “an iPad Christmas”. Which Apple product will be your choice for Christmas?
