Apple's 9.7-inch iPad to get boost from increased enterprise tablet adoption in 2013

While many recent reports have focused on Apple's new iPad mini, one market analyst says an uptick in expected enterprise tablet purchases will allow the full-size iPad to continue its domination of the market.

Source: Piper Jaffray

In a note to investors on Monday, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said a recent survey of 59 chief information officers over 12 different industries points to continued growth for Apple's 9.7-inch iPad, which is reportedly better suited for business operations than the iPad mini.
The investment firm's annual CIO survey suggests that 57 percent of organizations plan to deploy tablets to workers in 2013, compared to 46 percent in 2012. Of the CIOs who said their companies would participate in device rollouts, 15 percent have plans for "broad deployments," almost four times as many as last year's 4 percent. This compares to the 34 percent of respondents who expect to increase investments in PCs.

"We view the greater deployment of tablets as a positive for AAPL given that we believe the iPad has over 60% global tablet share and likely a higher share among enterprises," Munster wrote. "We believe continued growth in enterprise tablet deployment will help drive continued growth in the full sized iPad segment given the larger iPads are better for content creation."

The analyst went on to say that "broad" enterprise deployments are expected to increase rapidly in the next 3-5 years.

Also of note is a decrease in the number of companies that do not have any deployment plans, which fell from 54 percent in 2012 to 42 percent in 2013. Only 5 percent of respondents expected to decrease spending in tablets for the coming year while 20 percent plan to make funding cuts for PCs.

In addition to the increased tablet adoption, the survey found storage and security remain the top two least discretionary items for the year with 64 percent and 63 percent of respondents saying they expect to increase spending in those areas, respectively. Overall, 76 percent of the CIOs polled said they planned to increase spending in 2013, slightly down from 90 percent in 2012.

Piper Jaffray reiterates an overweight rating for AAPL stock, with a target price of $900.