iPad users are big news consumers: study
In good news for the news media, iPad users are twice as likely to be interested in news, sports and finance than the typical visitor to the various websites operated by Yahoo, according to an analysis provided by the web portal.
Marking one of the first efforts to understand the burgeoning iPad population, Yahoo found that the initial audience for the Apple tablet is weighted toward men between the ages of 30 to 54.
With the audience skewed most strongly to those between the ages of 35 and 44, the iPad generation appears to be younger than the Kindle crowd, which trended into the 50s and beyond in an informal poll of users at the Amazon website.
In comparing iPad users to the over-all traffic at the various Yahoo properties, the portal found that iPadders are 2.2 times more interested in financial news than the average Yahoo visitor, 2.0x more interested in general news and 1.9x times more interested in sports. iPadders also accessed Flickr, the picture-sharing website, 2.4x more than the average Yahoo visitor.
posted by Newsosaur at 3:48 PM
7 Comments:
The unanswered question is, are the youngish, largely male news hounds willing to PAY for newspaper subscriptions on the iPad?
I'm skeptical....
I think this small group of iPad newspaper readers are not new customers, they buy it now.
I suspect the iPad is a means for them to spend less on newspapers. It is taking a $1 customer and making them to newspapers a 10 cent customer.
Written on an iPad : I love the wsj app - a great new way to read a newspaper. I wonder when others will jump on board. The nyt's sort-of app is just lame compared to wsj.
I also suspect that deeper research will reveal these iPad users to be "infoholics" already getting a large amount of news and information via other channels, likely the web. These are NOT new news hounds. While it's important to be able to communicate with consumers via whatever channel they want and need, sometimes you end up with a negative ROI. Unless there is a stable, positive business model in place for this (and people willing to pay), iPad revenue stream will remain tiny and that's not good.
If all the iPad is going to do is recreate an existing experience, it's not a very noteworthy accomplishment. Heck, I'm still waiting for my cell phone to do all the things they're doing with their cell phones in Europe.
It's waaaaaaaaaaaaay too early to be drawing conclusions on long term iPad user tendencies & profiles. Everyone who has the toy is essentially playing with it, showing to every un-cool friend who doesn't have one.
Let's wait a bit and see if the stats change as the device loses its initial WOW factor.
If you spend $600+ on this device are you going to be any more inclined to pay for your news? Or should someone who is willing to spend $600+ on this device be expected to pay for their news??? :)
The engagement capability of this device is certainly different but I'm still struggling to see how that really changes the mindset of a public who expects their content for free into one willing to pay.
I hope it does but it will be through leveraging the new capabilities to draw the reader into the story, not simply putting an app on the device.
Another way to look at this is... what are most users doing with their new iPads?
And if they're visiting newspaper sites with their iPads, they were probably doing it before with their desktop computers, and smart phones. Wrong to assume they were previously buying a newspaper.
Post a Comment
<< Home