Purchase intent for Apple?s iPad continues to build with a 28-point jump in awareness among females over the past nine months, according to a recent study conducted by global research and technology firm Vision Critical.

Interest in the iPad among younger adults also increased since March, and now one-in-five Americans ages 18-34 (21 percent) plan to buy an iPad in the next six months. Nine months after the release of Apple?s multimedia tablet, and following swift holiday sales, indications are strong that consumers will use the device to access a broad array of digital media content, per Vision Critical.

?It is important for brands, marketers and content creators to really learn how best to engage with consumers within this new device and media ecosystem, so that consumer interactions, products and services can be optimized for this specific medium,? said Matt Kleinschmit, senior vice president at Vision Critical, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

?If they simply take existing content and apply it to tablets as if it is a PC, they may not be maximizing either the potential consumer experience or the perceived value associated with this medium,? he said.

?It is also important to understand how consumers wish to interact with brands and content in this new ecosystem within the context of their broader relationship with that consumer, so that they can prioritize their customization efforts in a fashion that maximizes monetization opportunities while minimizing potential cannibalization with their existing traditional revenue models.?

Tablet boom
The growing interest in the iPad is driven by consumer appetite for accessing many Web-based multimedia options, including general Internet browsing, photos, music and video consumption, applications, news and information, books, newspapers and magazines, as well as communication and social networking.

?The aspect of the study that was most interesting is twofold,? Mr. Kleinschmit said.

?No. 1, how quickly the multimedia tablet category has formalized, with this going from launch of the iPad to a whole field of competitors in under a year, and No. 2, consumers are quickly learning how this product impacts their consumption of a wide variety of digital media content?photos, video, music, news and magazines?and the potential cannibalization impact of these behavioral changes on similar products such as laptops and ereaders,? he said.

There is also significant consumer appeal in using Apple?s FaceTime video calling application on the iPad.

FaceTime is currently available only to owners of the iPhone 4, but is rumored to be included in the 2011-generation iPad.

More than one-third of Americans ages 18-34 (37 percent) find the idea of having the FaceTime application on an iPad ?extremely? or ?very? appealing, suggesting that the ability to make video calls with iPad could expand the tablet?s potential customer base even further.

?I found the data on the appeal of the FaceTime app to be quite interesting, in that on-the-go video calling may be at a tipping point to go mainstream given consumers? growing familiarity with Skype and similar services,? Mr. Kleinschmit said.

?The addition of FaceTime to the next-generation iPad could be a significant driver of adoption,? he said.

Captain of a new category
Similar to the findings of a March 2010 study conducted by Vision Critical to gauge the impact of the iPad on digital media consumption, Americans continue to view the tablet as similar to a wide range of other digital devices, including desktop/laptop PCs (38 percent), smartphones (35 percent), netbooks (34 percent) and wireless ereaders (30 percent).

But the proportion of consumers who find the iPad similar to many of these other devices has dropped, suggesting that consumers are increasingly considering the iPad and other tablets as a new, distinctive product category.

In addition, only desktop/laptop PCs and wireless ereaders did not experience declines in being thought of as similar to the iPad, indicating that Americans find the iPad to be potentially interchangeable with these two devices after becoming more familiar with the tablet over time.

?The iPad, and presumably similar tablets, fulfill an unmet need for a portable multimedia Internet device?really a coming of age for an ?Internet appliance? that technology companies have been talking about for year,? Mr. Kleinschmit said. ?In a way, we saw this same need driving the adoption of netbooks a couple years ago with consumers looking for a device that allows them to access the Internet, communicate with others and consume digital content without all of the work-related functionality associated with traditional laptops.

?At the same time, there is a growing familiarity and increasing comfort among mass-market consumers with accessing a wide range of digital content?first music, then books, videos and games,? he said. ?Finally, I also believe there is a certain trust factor at play in that Apple has a good track record with the iPod and iPhone that it knows how to create intuitive and dynamic products that work flawlessly.

?All of these things are coming together at the right time for the iPad, and could also translate to other tablet manufacturers.?

Final Take