24% of Americans surveyed plan to buy the new iPad

29% of international respondents hoped to buy it within 3 months

Source: Baird Equity Research

One of the first things they teach you in Statistics 101 is that the size of your sample doesn't matter as much as how representative it is.

In that regard, it's probably a good thing that Baird's William Power acknowledges high up in the note he issued to clients Monday that the online survey of 488 potential customers Baird Equity Research fielded last week "catered to a younger, tech-savvier group on average."

Still, if taken with the requisite grain of salt, the results are chock-full of savory factoids that are, as Power puts it, "encouraging" for Apple (AAPL).

Among the highlights: (I quote)

Existing user demand strong. Among existing iPad owners, 48% indicated they plan to purchase the new iPad, with 35% of those already owning an iPad 2.

New buyers flocking as well. 42% of those planning to purchase the new iPad have never owned an iPad or other tablet.

iPad 2 still in demand. 15% of U.S. respondents plan to purchase the discounted iPad 2.

Retinal display key new feature. When asked about reasons for purchasing the new iPad, 28% cited the Retina Display as the top reason, followed by the A5X processor at 26% and LTE at 17%.

Replacing laptops. 28% of respondents suggested they were purchasing an iPad instead of a laptop, though close to 50% overall suggested the iPad purchase wouldn't delay the purchase of other electronic purchases.

Reasons not to buy. High price was the largest reason for not purchasing an iPad, cited by 60% of non-buyers.

LTE version popular. 36% of respondents plan to purchase an LTE-enabled version, with previous industry estimates suggesting 80% or more of iPad sales have been WiFi only. In addition, a majority of our respondents claim they plan to use the cellular connectivity daily.

Our favorite finding: Although 81% of of these tech savvy online respondents had a pretty good idea what 4G meant, only 41% thought they knew what LTE was.

Of that 41%, 13% correctly identified it as an acronym for "Long Term Evolution." (Other guesses: "Light Transfer Expansion" and "Long Telecom Exposure.") More than 2o% thought it was a proprietary Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T) or Sprint (S) technology.

See below.

Posted in: Apple, AT&T, Baird, iPad, iPad 2, iPad 3, Sprint Nextel, Tablets, Verizon, William Power

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