The loyalty of Apple customers is well-documented, but according to the latest research data from NPD, iOS devices are doing a good job of raking in new customers, too. For over one in four iPad owners, the tablet is their very first Apple product. 33% of U.S. homes have an Apple product nestled inside somewhere, and of them, one in five houses an iPad - just about as many as those that own Mac computers. The trend marks a decline in iPod as the primary gateway to the wonderful world of Apple for many consumers; within the last two years, 57% reported the iPod as their first Apple gadget, versus 70% historically. One particularly interesting statistic uncovered by NPD is that almost 30% of Apple fans have a smartphone that isn't an iPhone.

One of the hallmarks of Apple products is their simplicity, which means a nice, low barrier for entry when it comes to late adopters. Android, by comparison, tends to be overwhelming for the less technologically-inclined. The fact that the iPad is appealing just as much to first-timers as Mac computers adds at least a bit of credence to Apple's supposed "post-PC" era, but those that are late to the game with gadgets likely have modest computing demands, and for them, the iPad is all the computer they need. I would be curious to hear about how many of those new iPad owners move on to get a Mac of any kind. Also, how many of these first-time Apple owners are hardened PC or Android users migrating to iOS or OS X?

Was the iPad your first Apple product? Did you manage to convince any friends to switch to Apple with the new iPad? I could imagine it's getting harder and harder to say no to Apple products these days, regardless of which part of the computing world you're coming from...

Source: NPD

Paul Haddad from Tapbots let us know just how fast he's seeing users update to iPhone 3.0. Based on the headers included when their app Convertbot checks with its servers to get the latest currency information, Paul figures:

The data seems pretty clear. Prior to June 8th we have a fairly low adoption rate of ~3%. Starting on June 9 this jumps up to 6-8%, which can be directly tracked to the developer release at WWDC. Starting on June 17th we get a huge jump as all the non devs start upgrading. We’re currently running at an overall 75% upgrade rate which is pretty insane considering the number of devices and the fact that its only been 5 days.

Outside enthusiasts who regularly follow the news, users are only alerted to updates when they tether their iPhone to iTunes to sync. Looks like a lot of people are either enthusiastic enough to know about the update and want it, or fairly regular about syncing with iTunes.

Either way, these uptake levels are amazing.