New data from ChangeWave shows a promising trend in PlayBook purchasing intentions. The research house surveyed 3,108 consumers with an eye toward determining tablet and netbook demand and found the PlayBook to be the second most popular choice among respondents planning to buy a tablet. Eight percent of respondents expressed interest in it. That’s significantly less than the 80 percent who professed interest in the iPad, which, predictably, claims a daunting lead, but it’s significantly greater then the three percent who claimed interest in Samsung’s Galaxy tablet and the two percent who said they’d like Hewlett-Packard’s forthcoming Slate.

Which, as RBC analyst Mike Abramsky notes, is promising. Extrapolating from that eight percent figure, he estimates that RIM may sell as many as six million PlayBooks in 2011 (calendar) to claim 13 percent of the market.

“This set of hardware specs beat anything available to date on the tablet market,” Steven Li at Raymond James said in a research note issued today. “We believe the PlayBook tablet shows RIM is starting to compete effectively on hardware specs.”

RBC analyst Mike Abramsky offered a similar opinion, describing PlayBook’s specs as “leading-edge” and arguing that the device is well positioned for enterprise. “PlayBook may be cheaper, more productive than iPad for enterprises to deploy,” he observed, noting that the device requires no additional licenses or carrier costs and leverages existing corporate apps and infrastructure. Abramsky’s preliminarily estimate has RIM selling as many as six million PlayBooks in its first year at market.

Brian Modoff of Deutsche Bank said the company’s new OS has a lot of potential, likely making it easier for developers to write for the device and future products that use it.

Finally, over at Susquehanna, analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro talked up the device’s new QNX operating system, which sounds promising, though he noted that the transition to it could take some time, slowing the development of its app ecosystem.

“An app developer contact who works closely with RIM described the recently acquired QNX OS as “rock solid” as it was designed for mission critical applications, and felt that the SDK allowed for applications to be ported over fairly easily,” Fidacaro wrote. “The QNX OS is Unix-based and supports POSIX (easy portability of code) and OpenGL (3D graphics). We view RIM’s transition to a new OS positively as the Blackberry OS was antiquated, which apparently was not fully resolved with the recently launched Blackberry 6. However, we estimate the transition period to fully upgrade RIM’s 50+ mln subscriber base to the new platform to take at least two years. Furthermore, it is uncertain how easy RIM can port its proprietary technologies, such as security and compression, to the QNX platform.”

And that’s the real problem RIM (RIMM) is facing here: PlayBook is late to the game, and, as impressive as its specs might be, the timing of its launch– early 2011–may prove to be a real detriment. “With the PlayBook only available for consumers after the holiday season, we view this as a mild disappointment,” T. Michael Walkley of Canaccord Adams said in a note to clients Tuesday. “As such, we remain cautious in modeling RIM tablet sales due to the intensifying tablet competition and uncertain demand for this product.”

Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray
While Apple had yet another stellar quarter, investors will wonder if the pace of growth is sustainable. We believe it is, given Apple has small market share in large, growing markets. We estimate that if Apple meets our Mac, iPhone, and iPad targets in 2011, the company will have only about 5 percent market share in the phone and computer markets, a number that will likely grow over time.

Mike Abramsky, RBC
Apple is now benefiting from what we are dubbing a “Cascade of Cool”–three strong, synergistic product cycles–iPhone, iPad and Mac, combining together synergistically to drive the strongest outperformance in 4 years–with more to come, as Apple remains well positioned against large, addressable markets. Additional drivers/catalysts expected include international rollouts, voice to Smartphone adoption, PC to Mac migration, enterprise adoption.

Chris Whitmore, Deutsche Bank
While current quarter results were very impressive, we see open runway for the 3 major product cycles ramping in C2H10 and beyond which should drive continued momentum. The iPad is off to a very strong start with demand characterized by Apple as “amazing” with widespread appeal to the mass market (i.e. already moved beyond “early adopters”). iPhone 4 demand is outstripping supply despite widely publicized antenna concerns (which we expect to dissipate). Both products continue to ramp internationally (iPhone with 154 carriers in 88 countries) while iPad will be available in 9 additional countries by July 23rd. Finally, we expect the recently refreshed MacBook lineup (and future updates) to perform well in the back-to-school and holiday seasons.

Yair Reiner, Oppenheimer
We were expecting Apple to deliver a strong F3Q10. But we hadn’t girded ourselves for a mammoth revenue forecast, and neither, we believe, had the Street. To those (like us) who fretted that Antennagate might hamper iPhone sales, Apple’s guidance seems to say “antennagate schmantennagate.” Apple is seeing a swell of demand across its product lines and increasingly compelling evidence that the iPhone has unleashed a halo effect in the international markets. These are facts on the ground that even Apple’s stubbornly bearish guidance can’t resist.

Charlie Wolf, Needham and Co.
This is the Apple story in a nutshell. The company remains a small fish in some very large ponds. Despite a quadrupling of shipments over the past several years, the Mac, the major surprise in the third quarter with record shipments of 3.5 million, still commands a small share of the PC market. The iPhone’s share of the fast growing smartphone market is likewise comparatively small. And while the iPad is in a class of its own, it’s beginning to cannibalize the much larger netbook PC market. Indeed, the iPad has jumped to the mainstream market, passing through the early adopter market in an instant.

Maynard Um, UBS
Guidance was much stronger than expected as the rev outlook of ~$18b was uncharacteristically higher (by $1bn) than Street ests. We believe AAPL typically guides to a conservatively achievable target, making guidance all the more impressive. With AAPL selling nearly every iPad/iPhone 4 produced, key variable to magnitude of pot’l upside will likely be the pace of capacity increases.

Katy Huberty, Morgan Stanley
The market underestimates the earnings power of Apple’s mobile Internet devices. We view the combination of new product launches, broader distribution (carrier, international, enterprise), more attractive pricing and strong upgrade rates as the key demand drivers over the next two years. Additionally, we believe iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad margins will remain above the corporate average, driving EPS upside as mix improves.

As you can see, Apple’s financial performance has sent the analyst community into paroxysms of praise. Not a week after its Antennagate press conference, the company already seems to have extricated itself from the public relations quagmire surrounding the iPhone 4’s reception woes.

As RBC analyst Abramsky quipped, there’s no deodorant like success.

So begins a research note from RBC analyst Mike Abramsky that’s a good representation of the market’s reaction to Apple’s latest blow-the-roof-off-the-sucker quarter.

The 90 percent spike in profit the company reported yesterday, which surpassed already lofty expectations, inspired a rush of analyst notes this morning, all of them enthusiastic, all of them containing raised target prices on Apple’s (AAPL) stock (Eric Savitz at Barron’s has the full run down).

Abramsky, for example, raised his target price to $350 from $275, and he wasn’t the only one. Chris Whitmore at Deutsche Bank did the same, saying, “Apple continues to show both impressive growth and profitability and is well positioned to benefit from the confluence of three major product refreshes beginning in the June quarter, namely: iPad, Macs and iPhone refresh expected this summer.”

Over at Broadpoint.AmTech, Brian Marshall raised his target to $320 for similar reasons: “Apple continues to gain share across its major product lines (iPhones, Macs and iPods),” he wrote in a research note. “Its business model is becoming stronger over time as well as the company benefits from an increasing richness of its revenue mix and when ASP cuts come, customers typically migrate up the ‘SKU stack’ and buy higher priced items with higher associated gross margins.”

And at Piper Jaffray, analyst Gene Munster dismissed Apple’s comically conservative guidance, upping his target to $323 from $299. Apple’s June quarter will be an encore to the one it just delivered, he said in a research note.

With a new iPhone waiting in the wings and the much ballyhooed iPad having just arrived at market, it does seem that way, doesn’t it? Consider this from Munster:

“Apple indicated that early iPad sales exceeded company expectations, which we see as a positive indication for the long-term investment prospects of the iPad segment. As the value proposition clarifies, we believe investors will begin to see the iPad as a Mac for the masses. In other words, the iPad is a lower-ASP device that accomplishes many everyday computing tasks as well as a Mac; as such, we believe the addressable market for the iPad is larger than many investors believe.”

If this proves true, expect Apple to deliver another of its “best quarters ever” when it next reports earnings.

At $258.14, Apple shares are trading up 5.54 percent today.

Still, RBC/ChangeWave found that 13 percent of the 3,200 respondents who participated in its iPad survey were either somewhat or very likely to purchase the device, compared with the nine percent who gave the same reply for the original iPhone in a similar survey conducted prior to its launch (see chart below; click on charts to enlarge). Said RBC analyst Mike Abramsky: “While we do not expect feverish initial launch lines like iPhone, the data portends well for healthy initial iPad uptake.”

The reason? The iPad’s unexpectedly low price point. Starting at $499, it is significantly below the $999 price expected. “Only 8 percent (of respondents) appear unwilling to pay Apple’s indicated iPad prices,” Abramsky notes. “That’s below the 28 percent who balked at initial iPhone pricing. Interest appears strongest with both Entry-Level and Tech-Savvy Buyers; 19 percent of declared iPad buyers indicated interest in the $499 16GB WiFi-only iPad, and 19 percent in the $829 64GB 3G iPad.”

Top planned uses for the device among both groups of buyers: Surfing the Internet (68 percent), checking e-mail (44 percent), and reading e-books (37 percent).

Evidently, Apple (AAPL) has managed to hit the pricing sweet spot at both the high and low ends of the market, which, as Abramsky observes, bodes well for its chances for success. “This data, while preliminary, suggests iPad may have greater potential than expected, to expand Apple’s addressable PC, iPod markets and to capture a segment of the home PC market (est. 35M+ units/yr),” he writes.

Abramsky’s estimate for iPad sales in CY 2010: Five million units, for revenue of $2.4 billion and earnings per share of 33 cents.

It remains to be seen whether Apple (AAPL) has created an entirely new computing category with the iPad. But at the very least, analysts seem to believe the company has created an enduring growth engine.

• Charlie Wolf, Needham & Company
  “Because Apple is defining a new category of devices, sales of the iPad are likely to ramp slowly. But the $500 starting price point is low enough to attract a sizable portion of the early adopter crowd, consisting of iPhone and iPod owners. It’s noteworthy that the iPad’s initial price is below the iPhone’s initial price and not much higher than the price of the first iPod, introduced in 2001. Our best guess at this time is the Apple could sell four million iPads in its initial year on the market, which translates into at least $2 billion of revenue.”
• Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray
  “Originally we were estimating sales of 2m units in the first calendar year at a price point of $600-$800. With the actual $499/$629 price point, we believe Apple will sell 3m-4m units in the first 12 months….After using the iPad, we believe it will cannibalize iPod touch sales, but not Mac sales. The gadget is a premium mobile device, not a computer; as such, we see some iPod touch buyers stepping up to the iPad, but consumers looking for an affordable portable computer will likely stick with the MacBook lineup.”
• James McQuivey, Forrester
  “The iPad is a grown up iPod Touch. Apple has taken the safe route of offering its existing customers an option that goes beyond today’s iPod Touch in size and capability, but it has not offered a new category of devices that tackles the 5-6 hours of media we each consume every day. With no integrated social media for sharing photos, recommending books, and sharing home video, the iPad misses a big piece of what makes media so powerful. As it stands, by relying on the App Store as the single most important draw of the device besides its attractiveness, the iPod Touch is a significant step toward making tablets respectable. But making tablets respectable should have been the least of Apple’s ambitions. It had (and still has) the opportunity to create a new media experience in consumers’ lives. As it stands, a quick, well-structured response from Amazon in the next version of Kindle could easily be a contender here. That’s why I say that the iPad is priced lower than expected because it is less revolutionary than expected.”
• Mike Abramsky, RBC
  “Like the first iPod and iPhone, uptake may in time surprise as future versions improve and costs decline. The iPad’s intuitiveness and simplicity at key tasks (browsing, email, media, watching videos, games, reading, working) may appeal to consumers for whom existing PC experiences are intimidating, inadequate, delivering 90%+ of the features of traditional PCs with less complexity than traditional PCs. Uptake however may require in-store demos to truly experience the richness of iPad’s experience.”
• Tavis McCourt, Morgan Keegan
  “The iPad has been long anticipated so we are not shocked by the lack of stock movement. Given the price point, we suspect initial sales will be strong (this is Apple, and there are many enthusiasts), and then simmer down a bit after a few months. The ultimate success of a new product category will be the unique apps developed for this device, and with the SDK just going out today, it is hard to know how impressive they will be. However, the good news is that aside from maybe modest iPod Touch cannibalization, we doubt that the iPad will cannibalize any revenues from the massive margin pools within the iPhone and Mac product categories.”
• Craig Moffett, Bernstein Research
  “Longer term, the iPad offers the potential to redefine the boundaries between print and video, turning formerly passive media into active ones, and in the process making what are currently low bandwidth applications (say, reading a newspaper) become much more bandwidth intensive (e.g. by embedding video rather than still pictures).”
• Mark Moskowitz, J.P. Morgan
  “iPad is not for everyone, and the first-generation product is sure to have its critics given the prelaunch buzz. In our view, the iPad is a smart, nimble device for heavy content users–Apple’s core customer. iPad is a hybrid of sorts, marrying select benefits of the smartphone and notebook. We expect the market to be small at first, but the gamer and education verticals should construct a meaningful growth ramp longer term.”

At $12.34, Palm (PALM) is up well over seven percent as I write this, a nice gain that more than offset the four percent drop the company’s shares suffered last week. Clearly, the market is expecting a lot of the Pixi, and according to some analysts, it may get it. In a note to clients Friday, RBC analysts said they “expect positive consumer reception and healthy sell-through,” for the Pixi.

But not everyone agrees with RBC’s cheery assessment. Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Northeast Securities, has a much dimmer view of Palm’s prospects in the months ahead. He says his sell-through checks show a “substantial decline” in recent Pre sales.

“As a fading brand, carriers are likely to see better returns on their promotional and advertising dollars with other vendors,” Kumar writes. “WebOS has negligible smartphone OS share, 0.2 percent per Gartner estimates, and is unlikely to attract any meaningful third-party application support. Palm has bet the farm on webOS and there is a real possibility that they may not achieve critical mass.”

Perhaps. Perhaps not. We’ll see in the months ahead.