With Apple's announcement yesterday of the App Store coming to the Mac, most people assumed it would be the move that will push the new Macbooks to unprecedented success when it's launched.
But I'm not so sure, especially after seeing a recent Nielsen report about app-buying habits on the iPad. Shockingly, over 30% of iPad owner have never downloaded an app for their device. The reason this is so surprising is that app support was one of the major selling points behind the device.
Apple should take notice of these statistics, because a third of your users going app-less on a device aimed to be used for apps can't be taken lightly. And while app support is a cool feature and certainly hasn't deterred people from buying iPads, we all may have overestimated the impact of apps on non-smartphone devices.
Additionally, there are two main takeaways from this study. One, Apple will have to make sure that apps never become the primary selling point for any of their devices given the high percentage of people who don't utilize them outside of their iPhones.
Secondly, this is good news for iPad's competitors who have been criticized for not supporting apps, because obviously there are a multitude of other reasons why people buy tablets. This means the tablet playing field might be a lot more level than we originally thought.
