The new iPad 2 is likely to be one to benefit from the ferocious growth in the field of tablets according to a survey carried out by analyst firm Changewave.

The company carried out a survey in February, before the launch of the iPad 2, using a sample of 3091 consumers and queried them about tablet demand.

More than one in four of the respondents, 27 per cent, said that they will buy a tablet device in the future, an increase of two per cent over the previous survey carried out three months earlier.

Five per cent of the respondents said that they would like to purchase one within the next 90 days, meaning that the remaining 22 per cent may delay their purchase decisions until the second half of the year.

Apple and its iPad family remains the preferred option when it comes to tablet brand with 82 per cent of the market, far ahead of Motorola XOOM (4%), The RIM Playbook (3%) and the Samsung Galaxy Tab (3%).

One of the factors that explain why the iPad still remains the overall favourite is that the satisfaction rating of the tablet amongst existing customers is extremely high; 95 per cent of owners are either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied.

Changewave survey also highlighted the very real danger of tablet cannibalization for other product segments. More customers are deciding to put off, delay or cancel purchases of eReaders, laptops or netbooks because they have purchased a tablet.