Dear Santa, I Want an iPad

Quick, what’s going to be the hottest tech gadget this holiday shopping season? If you didn’t say the iPad, you haven’t been paying attention over the last six months.

Consumer electronics shopping site Retrevo surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. consumers about their plans for the holiday spending spree, as well as top picks on their wish list, and released the results today. The iPad or tablet ranked highest, followed by a laptop, HDTV set, Kindle or e-reader, and an iPod or MP3 player.

“Unless Android gets it together in the tablet department, Apple could have a very good holiday season,” Andrew Eisner, Retrevo’s director of community and content, in his blog.

At the head of the pack of tech-gadget consumers is a young guy who already has an iPhone, according to the survey. That is, 70 percent of consumers age 18 to 34 plan to buy an electronic gadget, followed by 53 percent age 35-54, and 31 percent age 55 and up.

On the gender gap, 65 percent of men will buy an electronic gadget compared to 52 percent of women. Meanwhile, 83 percent of iPhone owners will add to their collection of gadgets this year.

Apparently, high unemployment and a tight-fisted economy won’t dampen consumer appetite for tech gadgets, according to Retrevo. Dollars spent on gadgets will likely come out of the travel budget. Retrevo’s survey found that 16 percent of respondents said they will spend more on electronics this year, while 28 percent said they will spend less on travel.

Tom Kaneshige covers Apple and Networking for CIO.com. Follow Tom on Twitter @kaneshige. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline. Email Tom at tkaneshige@cio.com.