“According to NPD’s Consumer Tracking Service, 76 percent of consumers who purchased a non-Apple tablet didn’t even consider the iPad, an indication that a large group of consumers are looking for alternatives, and an opportunity for the rest of the market to grow their business.”
If you overlay this argument on your South American analogy it would read something like:
Economic conditions in South America are improving, an indication that poverty has declined.
If you think about it, this does not make sense. Improvements in economic conditions may have no effect on poverty at all if the money is not trickling down.
NPD was probably targeting this report at some PC manufacturer that was looking to invest in the tablet sector. It is probably 'market research' reporting such as this that creates bubbles such as Groupon.