Forty per cent of UK consumers would like to replace their laptops with a tablet PC such as Apple’s much-anticipated iPad, a survey conducted by the price comparison site Kelkoo UK claimed.

However, 23 per cent of the surveyed people said that iPad’s functionality was too limited. It should be noted here that iPad can run only one application at a time and lacks a built-in web-camera and support to Adobe Flash.

Around 32 per cent of the respondents said they did not require an iPad at all.

California-based Apple’s iPad that resembles a large iPhone with its 24.3cm by 18.9cm screen hit the US stores yesterday with a price tag of $499.

The device allows its users to surf the web, read e-books, watch videos and play games. Analysts expect that the company would be able to sell 7.1 million iPads globally this year.

However, Apple is yet to announce when its iPad will hit the UK stores.

Meanwhile, reports suggested that Apple would drop support for HTML in the next version of its iPhone OS, which is scheduled to be released this summer.