Retrevo has recently released some statistics that highlight the market expectations for the price point of the rumoured Apple Tablet and the correlations between the cost and purchases based on a key separation, the PC User group, and the Mac User group.
While most are talking about the price point as the key element being prices and how they’ll influence market penetration for an Apple based Tablet, I think there’s more to this then most are letting on.
The key differentiation between the PC User and the Mac User and the price expectation as well as the Mac users relative acceptance of the “Apple Tax” is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Forty-one percent of Apple users would buy an Apple tablet if it cost more than $800.00 compared to a lowly twenty percent for PC users. That’s a huge difference for consumers who don’t have a whole lot of difference, but I think it’s a key indicator in the general happiness and faith Mac users have in the machines Apple are churning out these days.
While the price is partially effected by the general push downward in prices for crappy netbooks, and the market expectations of PC users, I’m hard pressed to believe that that’s the only cause here.
Some might say we’re more gullible, and tote the party line a little too much, but historically, I’ve had a lot less problems with my Apple products than I have had with non-Apple products, and I think these numbers point that out more than Retrevo has accounted for. Mac users are willing to pay more because they have complete faith in the products success, based on past performance.
This graph has a lot more to do with consumer’s feeling confident in their purchases than it does budget size.
