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Daily Update for March 16, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Views of new iPad videos outpacing original, iPad 2
Each year, the iPad is capturing the attention of a growing number of people. You can see it in the press coverage that's dedicated to the device, the amount of people using it in public and in the number people who've watched Apple's iPad videos on YouTube. According to AdAge, the original iPad video campaign accrued 2.5 million views in a week, while the iPad 2 climbed to 2.7 million. In the same amount of time, the third generation iPad has grabbed 2.8 million. This latter figure is significant as the new iPad is an evolutionary step in the progression of Apple's tablet. It's not as revolutionary as the original iPad which was a new device and one that kicked off this current tablet craze. Even though the new iPad is similar to earlier models in many ways, people still want to see it in action. AdAge also points out Apple's online advertising strategy which uses a short 30-second spot combined with a longer five-minute ad. Rather than leave old ads on its YouTube channel, the company deletes the earlier marketing clips when the new ones go live. When you go to Apple's YouTube page to view the iPad, all you will see is the current generation model, which, as AdAge points out is likely what Apple wants.
Stat Alert: More connected phones than computers in key markets, says Google (updated)
There are obvious stats, bizarre ones, and then the good old informative ones. New data from Google revealed by Ad Age, falls into the latter category. According to Goog's numbers, more people have a mobile internet-capable device than a PC or laptop in the five key markets it tested (US, UK, Germany, France and Japan). In the US, this figure is nearly 10% more, some 76% against 68%. The numbers were taken in September and October last year, which means any impact Christmas may have had won't be taken into account. The trend away from feature phones towards smartphones is also drilled home, but that won't be news to many people 'round these parts. No matter how you connect these days, any savvy netizen will tell you: it's quality, not quantity that counts anyway.Update: The complete report is now up online and, while smartphone and tablet use is skyrocketing, it doesn't appear to be eating into PC sales. Check out the more coverage link for all the slides.
Apple's iPad ad goes viral
Apple's "Meet iPad" ad, which debuted during the Oscars, became the second-most viewed viral video ad last week. Michael Learmonth, writing for AdAge, points out that "Apple has had a YouTube channel since 2005, but only recently started using it. In the past, they'd focused on driving views on Apple.com, but for the iPad, they allowed the video to be embedded across the web, and views were distributed across 100 different placements." Those 100 different placements totaled a cool 2.5 million "Meet iPad" ad views last week, according to online video measurement firm Visible Measures. The only ad that beat "Meet iPad" was E*Trade's popular "Milkaholic" Superbowl ad, which had increased views due to interest from Lindsay Lohan filing suit against E*Trade claiming the ad was a parody of her. "Meet iPad" was produced by the TBWA/Chiat/Day ad agency.
Learning from Sony's viral blog mistake
"From this point forward, we will just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you nothing but the facts on the PSP."These were the last words of Sony's viral-blog-gone-bad. The site is now suspiciously empty, showing how empty that apology/promise really was. Advertising Age did an interesting write-up on the whole ordeal, making note that the FTC is now taking steps to ensure that companies disclose the true nature of any viral communications they produce. The article has four things to learn from Sony's mistakes, and I found the following to be most important: "The consumer is smarter than you think, alternative marketing tactics must be genuine, authentic and in today's world, transparent." As Penny Arcade smartly noted, "The reality is that no agency can create viral marketing, this is the sole domain of the consumer."Sony has to stop thinking we're idiots, and start treating us as educated consumers that know what we want. The homebrew community is a testament to that statement. Sony: listen to the gamers, read some PSP Fanboy and Joystiq, and figure out what we want.[Via AdJab]
