Analyst: iPad 2 Proves Apple Understands Desire

A day after the announcement of the iPad 2, Analysts are already weighing in on the effects the device will have on the tablet industry. According to Forrester senior analyst Sarah Rotman Epps, the second iPad is set to command 80 percent of the market.

This, she says, is due to more than just functionality improvements. Apple understands desire, Epps said in a post on her blog. The rest is important but more cerebral.

The core of Apple's success, Epps says, is that the company understands the changing nature of how consumers interact with devices. Emotion, for example, is playing a larger role in how consumers approach new technology, which Apple capitalizes on in advertising. More than increasing the specifications of its devices, Apple's goal is to increase the emotional investment consumers have with Apple products.

Epps says emotional connections also play a large role in Apple's application ecosystem, which is prized by consumers due to the large number of apps featured on it. That extends further to Apple's retail locations, which add a human touch to the purchasing experience.

Apple's competition, has failed to follow in their example. The competing products we've seen announced so far from Motorola, RIM, HP, and others, while impressive, have fatally flawed price and distribution strategies, which leads us to our call that of the 24.1 million tablets that will sell to US consumers in 2011, at least 20 million will be iPads, she said.

Motorola's Xoom, while a potential rival to Apple's iPad, faces significant obstacles in light of its $800 price, which is a significant increase over comparable iPad models. Future competiors are likely to have similar issues, analysts say.

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