Cowen's Survey On The Demand For iPad Mini

AllThingsD:

More interesting still, of the survey respondents who said they planned to purchase an iPad mini, just 16.6 percent said they intended it as a replacement for another device, and of those, 29 percent said the gadget to be replaced was an iPad (13 percent said that device to be replaced was a Kindle Fire, and 42 percent a Windows PC).

When I first read this my eyes blew up; 42% of iPad Mini purchasers surveyed see it as a replacement for a Windows PC.

I’m not sure whether this number is so ridiculously high because of a statistical fluke or because people genuinely feel that they could use a 8 inch iPad as their primary “computer”.

I have been bullish on the iPad in general, but I was ignorant to the fact that normal people might be able to get by with a Mini as their primary PC.

If you do the calculations, only 61 people of the total study actually expressed that view; this is because the 42% number is quoted in relation to the number of respondents who planned to buy a Mini, not 42% of the whole. It’s also unclear how the question was interpreted by respondents; “replacement” can be quite ambiguous in meaning.