Research company pinpoints the exact key factors that make the iPad experience great

Dec 23, 2011 09:47 GMT  ·  By

A study by the Software Usability Research Laboratory (SURL) has concluded the obvious (taint) that owners of an Apple iPad are totally satisfied with their tablet computer.

Specifically, some 83.65 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with the iPad. Their majority cited its user-friendliness and rated the iPad as “Excellent”, while a smaller group only said it was “Good” (21%).

Ten percent said it was the “Best Imaginable” device. Only four percent said “Fair” when referring to the tablet experience provided by the Apple iPad, two percent said it was “Poor” gadget, and another two said “Awful”.

Many said that what they most liked about the iPad was the variety of apps available for the device. Then came overall ease of use, the large screen size, and its portability.

“When asked which iPads apps they liked the BEST, respondents mentioned the Safari web browser the most, followed by Flipboard, iBooks, the Kindle app, and email,” SURL wrote.

On the downside, some people didn’t care much for the iPad’s inability to play Flash content and some were disappointed with the poor quality of some apps, though it is hard to attribute this lackluster feature to Apple.

Some also said they had problems typing with the virtual keyboard.

13 percent of the owners said they used their iPad solely for work. Half of the respondents said they used it for work also, suggesting some personal use was involved as well.

SURL said “Overall, it seems as though Apple is listening to its customers. Many participants from the original study mentioned the lack of a camera and ability to multitask as being the LEAST liked features of the iPad. These were not mentioned as frequently in the current study, as Apple introduced cameras in the iPad 2 and made multitasking abilities available for both the original iPad and iPad 2.”