Silly girl. The iPad's for boys.
That's just one of the many nuggets stemming from a Nielsen survey. The market research giant polled more than 5,000 gadgetholics for its new Connected Devices Playbook survey, and arrived at some surprising results.
Yes, a group of 5,000 people, of which only 400 are iPad owners, could use more support. A larger audience would have been ideal. However, it's at least enough to get some healthy conversations going. Let's go over some of the meatier findings.
- Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL ) iPad owners are 65% male. This compares to more even 52% male 48% female split for iPhones, iPod touch devices, and Amazon.com's (Nasdaq: AMZN ) Kindle. Even the Sony (NYSE: SNE ) PSP -- in a gaming niche typically dominated by young male gamers -- had a larger 38% share of female owners. It would be interesting to see Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT ) Zune breakdown -- since that seems to be a dude magnet -- but it wasn't in the survey.
- A thick 44% slice of Kindle owners make $80,000 or more a year. The iPad costs considerably more than the Kindle, yet only 39% of those owners are making at least $80,000 annually.
- Among all connected gadgetry owners, only 45% of the survey respondents agreed that ads that offer customized information based on location are more useful.
That last point is significant because companies including ReachLocal (Nasdaq: RLOC ) and Local.com (Nasdaq: LOCM ) specialize in highly targeted localized campaigns. How can ads from nearby sponsors not be more effective? Well, they probably are, but I'm guessing that respondents simply don't appreciate the invasive nature of Big Brother marketing.
The survey also showed that iPad owners are more receptive to advertising, but that's not really a surprise. It's still a novelty, and rich graphical ads shine on the slick tablet. If the same question is asked in a couple of years, I wouldn't be surprised if the results change.
Another point in the survey that isn't really a surprise is that Kindle owners tend to have better educations than iPad owners. Those are fighting words, for sure, but it does make sense. Kindle is a one-trick pony that appeals to heavy readers. The iPad appeals to couch potatoes and young gamers as well as the intellectuals.
Tech users are notoriously hard to sample, especially if some devices had lower sample sizes than the iPad, so let's see whether a future study yields similar results. In the meantime, it's going to be fertile ground for cocktail party conversations.
Do you disagree with any of the survey's findings? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
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