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ABC's Sync iPad app is getting revived for Grey's Anatomy (update)
Reincarnation may not be part of everyone's belief system, but ABC has apparently embraced the concept for its eavesdropping Sync iPad app, which blipped in and out of existence after My Generation failed spectacularly last fall. At least that's what Rick Mandler, vice president of digital media at ABC, shared at Hill Holiday's TVnext conference, stating, "we went back and said, let's try this again with a show that we know is going to be around for a while." Now, the app is being called away from the pearly gates to serve as an iPad companion for Grey's Anatomy and presumably will operate much like the original, by providing synced polls, quizzes, and social media ties-in -- you know, playing into that whole three screens trend. There's also no word on whether the app will receive a makeover befitting of its new McSteamy / Dreamy subject matter, or when this revival will actually take place. If ABC really wants this new media interaction experiment to go differently this time, though, we expect to learn more from an intense voice talking over flashes of frantic gurney races and risque locker room encounters sometime soon. Update: Disney / ABC Television group has now made an official announcement about the application. Apparently, the latest iteration will launch with this Thursday's episode and includes new features such behind-the-scenes extras as well as the ability to "check-in" to special environments shown in the episode. In other words, our dreams of hopping on the same elevator with McDreamy can come true virtually -- and best of all, we can let the world know through Facebook. To see what we mean check out the video after the break.
Study shocker! Mobile users piddle around on the internet while watching TV
Shocker of shockers, folks: people do more than just watch TV when they're watching TV. A study of over 8,000 willing individuals from Nielsen and Yahoo recently discovered that some 86 percent of mobile internet users tinker around on their devices while situated in front of the tube. It seems that Googling random facts, checking their Facebook news feed and seeing who has tweeted in the past 30 seconds were atop the list of activities to do while watching, but strangely, a full 20 percent confessed to search for more information about a commercial they recently saw. Hit the source link below (PDF) to be instantly bombarded with facts and figures, but first, refresh that TweetCaster feed. Ah, so much better.
4G Shocker! Study finds consumers want what they fail to understand
We've certainly seen our fair share of 4G devices in the Las Vegas sun (well, convention center) this year, but as you might have guessed, a recent study finds that increased awareness does not necessarily equal increased understanding. As the Nielsen Company recently discovered, the majority (54 percent) of consumers who know or care about 4G were relying on the old International Telecommunications Union definition of mobile data speeds over 100 Mb/s, even though carriers have sort of been making up their own rules (for instance, T-Mobile and AT&T are calling their HSPA+ networks 4G). And what to make of the large percentage of people who think that 4G somehow refers to the iPhone 4? That one's a perpetual head-scratcher. But in the end, the study finds that none of that really matters: almost three in ten consumers are gearing up to buy a 4G device within the next twelve months. And \that's what really matters, right?
iPhone, Android "most desired" smartphones for upgraders in the U.S.
Here's a little analyst-based hint for those of you not sure what to get your smartphone-obsessed loved one this holiday season. According to a survey released by Nielsen, 29.7 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers now have smartphones (with Apple, RIM and Android taking the lion's share). Android's market share certainly has been growing, though, with RIM apparently losing out the most. However, out of all the regular mobile phone users who are planning to upgrade to a smartphone, when asked what platform they are most likely to upgrade to in the next year, both Apple's iPhone and Android were on a near par for the "most desired" smartphone operating system with Apple just pipping Android to the post. Apparently, for those planning to upgrade to a smart phone in the next year, it seems women tend to prefer the iPhone more while men, and those in the 35 - 54 age bracket, have a slightly greater tendency towards the Android variety. Nielsen summarizes its findings into the following four points: Among users planning to get a new smartphone, current smartphone owners showed a preference for the Apple iPhone (35 percent), while 28 percent of both smartphone and featurephone planned smartphone upgraders indicated they wanted a device with an Android operating system as their next mobile phone. Featurephone owners planning to get a smartphone are less likely to have made up their mind about the OS they will choose: 25 percent were "not sure" what their next desired OS might be compared to 13 percent of smartphone owners. Those over 55 were markedly less certain than younger mobile users, with 27.8 saying they weren't sure what kind of device they wanted next, compared to 12.2 percent of those 18 to 24. Apple's iPhone and devices with the Android operating system were the "most desired" among likely smartphone upgraders, with Apple showing a slight lead among those age 55+ , 18 to 24, and 25 to 34. Women planning to get a smartphone are more likely to want an iPhone as their next device, with slightly more males preferring Android. So, with all that information, you should have no problem choosing how to best please your loved one with the right smartphone gift this year. Naturally, here at TUAW, we'd suggest the slightly more fruity variety, but hey, the stats are in front of you. For the full Nielsen report click here. [via CNN Fortune]
Nielsen: Android makes huge gains in US smartphone marketshare, RIM takes a backseat, Apple leads in desirability
Nielsen's just released a report finding that 29.7 percent of mobile users in the United States now own a smartphone. Of that 29.7 percent (which you can see in the pie chart above), 27.9 percent of them have iPhones, 27.4 percent are BlackBerry users, and 22.7 percent have an Android device. Windows Mobile, Symbian, Linux and Palm are left to divide up the remaining chunk -- about 22 percent -- of the market. That's a massive shift from the beginning of the year, when the iPhone boasted 28 percent of the market, BlackBerry had 35 percent, and Windows Mobile about 19 percent. The biggest winner in this story is Android, which has gone from 9 percent of the smartphone-owning market at the beginning of the year, to 22.7 percent of the market today. The story looks a bit different, however, when people are asked about what kind of smartphone they would like to own next. In that case, Apple and Google are the big winners, with 30 percent of 'likely' smartphone upgraders' reporting they'd like an iPhone, while 28 percent said they want an Android device, and only 13 percent reporting that they're interested in a BlackBerry device. The picture looks very much the same with current smartphone owners, as well. As far as gender goes, the percentages are very similar when asked what smartphone is desired next, except that more men report wanting an Android device, while more women -- about 12 percent more -- say they simply don't know what they want next. Hit up the source link for charts on all this knowledge.
Kids 6-12 want iPads and iPod touches, survey says
Go figure -- this holiday season, kids want the priciest, hottest consumer electronics going. That's according to a new Nielsen survey, which says that across the demographic of kids 6-12, the iPad is the hottest gift in town, with 31 percent angling for a future purchase of Apple's tablet. The iPod touch is another big gift want as well, topping both the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP this year. And the iPhone is also on the list, with 20 percent of those polled hoping to see a smartphone under the tree. I don't have kids, but it seems a little nuts to me that six to twelve year olds are hoping for devices like the iPad and the iPhone. Then again, when I was a kid, there was nothing we wanted more than a new SNES or a Sega Genesis, and we still wound up getting things like books and sweaters anyway. So just because these kids want a big ticket Apple device doesn't necessarily mean it'll be showing up under the tree later this year. But you never know -- those kids go to school for like eight hours a day, right? Maybe while they're away at school, Mom and Dad get to use the iPad for themselves.
Nielsen: 31 percent of kids want an iPad, other stuff
Hey look, a chart with the iPad on top. Aren't statistics fun? And yet, this chart may not mean quite what you think it does. The Nielsen Company presented a cadre of individuals with a list of nice, shiny gadgets and let them cross off anything and everything they'd like to buy in the next six months, and 31 percent of kids 6-12 picked the iPad as one of them. That doesn't mean these youngsters wanted the iPad any more than a game console, mind you, it just means more of them picked the tablet than any other single game console on the list. Also, it turns out that the iPad was the only tablet PC available, so it could well have served as a proxy vote for other slates -- Galaxy Tab, anyone? The survey results also don't factor in ownership, so if the Xbox 360's low on the buy list, it could be because respondents already have one... but we suppose this is the definitive proof we've been searching for that e-readers are on the outs in the 12-and-under crowd. Jeff Bezos is crying over his evening oatmeal right now. After the break, see what the same chart looks like for teenagers and adults. (Hint: they aren't all that hot on handhelds.)
Survey: 32% of iPad owners have never downloaded an app [Update: 9%]
This is a fascinating little stat that echoes a few anecdotal statements I've heard before. Nielsenwire is claiming that a full 32% of iPad owners have never actually downloaded an app on the device, with another 5% only downloading free apps. That's a pretty crazy figure when you think about it -- with all of the functionality offered by third-party software on the iPad, almost a third of users have never, ever taken advantage of any of it. And I've heard similar things from developers in the past -- that a surprising amount of their users have either never downloaded an app on their iPhones at all, or have only ever downloaded free, jailbroken, or pirated apps. With the news yesterday of the Mac App Store coming, you wonder if we'll start seeing this same thing happen on traditional computers -- lots of users who only stick with the default features, and never explore any farther into what their devices can do for them. In a way, it's disappointing that these folks aren't taking full advantage of what the iPad can actually do. But then again, it makes those customer satisfaction stats all the more impressive -- 91% of users love their iPads, and only 68% of them have downloaded apps for it. That 23% in the middle must be really easy to please. Update, October 25th: If you agree that the 32% number sounds high, you're right -- Nielsen has updated their stats and said a big mistake was made. Turns out the number is much closer to 9%. Still significant, but not nearly as surprising. The original article above remains here for posterity. [via MacStories]
Android is number one OS among US phone buyers over the last six months
BlackBerry OS? Dead! iOS? Dead! Symbian? Never stood a chance. Android's exponential growth has today been illustrated by Nielsen's statisticians who present us with the above chart of recent US smartphone purchases. It shows that over the six months leading up to August 2010, 32 percent of American new phone buyers had grabbed themselves a device with Google's OS on board, which is comfortably ahead of RIM at 26 percent and Apple at 25 percent. These results corroborate NPD's figures on the matter -- which peg Android at 33 percent of new US purchases -- and reiterate the idea that Android is headed to a place whose name starts with D and ends with omination. One more chart showing total market share can be found after the break (hint: BlackBerry still reigns supreme overall).
Nielsen: growth of digital music sales flat in 2010
It's a bit early for the big music companies to start panicking, but it looks like the heyday of double-digit growth in digital music sales may now be behind us. That's according to market research firm Nielsen, at least, which found that sales in the US fell flat in 2010 after a 13 percent increase from 2008 to 2009, and a whopping 28 percent jump from 2007 to 2008. Nielsen is quick to point out, however, that it thinks this is a "plateau," and that it "doesn't mean that this digital consumption is going to drop significantly." It also still seems to be a different story outside of the US, with Nielsen reporting that digital music sales were up 7 percent in Britain, 13 percent in Germany and 19 percent in France.
ABC app eavesdrops on your TV to synchronize interactive content using Nielsen tech (video)
Fine purveyor of TV ratings Nielsen has just found another way to monitor your home -- an official ABC app that uses the iPad's microphone to figure out exactly what you're watching (whether live or recorded) and offer interactive content on the fly. Pop-Up Video, anyone? Nielsen says the app uses the same audio watermarks embedded in most every US television show to do its thing (and thus doesn't, say, record your household conversations) so there's some serious potential for the concept to spread beyond My Generation, the single show it's been announced for so far. We'll just kick back and wait for the responsible parties to figure out we'd rather play interactive Jeopardy than figure out the size of that salacious margarita. Because, like, OMG, right? Video and press release after the break, app available free at our source link.
Video demo of ABC's My Generation synchronized app
As Dave reported earlier, ABC and Nielsen have teamed up to develop an iPad app that supports the new series My Generation. Users run the app while watching the show -- either live or recorded -- and it will stay synced with the section of the episode you're watching by "listening" to the audio from your television, using the built-in microphone. From there the app will present you with polls and quizzes related to what you're watching, along with other interactive elements. You can get a sense of how this new form of interactivity will play out by watching the video above. [Yes, it's Flash; sorry, but ABC's hosting it and that's the only way to get at it. –Ed.] While you're watching TV, the iPad is actually watching you, in a manner of speaking; the app serves as a tool for Nielsen to understand viewing habits, as they will use digital watermarking to track user behavior. With such a small percentage of viewers likely to be using the app during the show, it's hard to tell just what kind of data they'll get. But it is an interesting experiment. My Generation doesn't premiere until September 23. I tried it out on the screener (preview copies available to media and reviewers) of the pilot, and it wasn't able to sync, so hopefully that just means the app's just not ready to go live yet; either that, or the Nielsen audio encoding wasn't embedded on the screener but has been added to the broadcast version.
Nielsen: In-game ads increase real-world sales
We hate to be the ones to break it to you -- but those in-game advertisements that some of you aren't terribly big fans? Well, they're actually pretty effective at boring into your subconscious and making you want to buy Axe Body Spray or Snickers, or whatever. A recent Nielsen study of six EA Sports titles, including NHL 10 and NBA Live 09, found that in-game ads for Gatorade increased household dollars spent on said beverage by 24 percent. For more information on how the study was conducted, you can check out Nielsen's press release. We'd normally take the time to summarize that process in this very post, but we've suddenly been struck by the strangest, most powerful urge to go out and just start slamming some sports drinks.
Americans prefer to email on the go, social network at home
We do like a pretty chart around here, and these latest ones from Nielsen are positively gorgeous. The internet stat-keeper has come out of a particularly hot and heavy research session with the conclusion that American online habits are a-changing. The unstoppable juggernaut that is social networking (23 percent) leads the way on computers, with online gaming (10 percent) now joining it in second place, and email ousted to an unhappy third (8 percent). The slack in electronic postage is being picked up by mobiles, however, with 42 percent of cellular internet time dedicated to exchanging messages the old fashioned way. Video streaming has shown double digit growth relative to last year, but remains a comparatively small part of what US interneters do. One thing we find humorous in the data is that 34 percent of all web time spent on computers is bundled into Nielsen's "Other" category -- any ideas on what people might be doing during that time?
BlackBerry users running out of loyalty: 50 percent plan to defect to iPhone or Android
Nielsen has its own angle on the smartphone numbers game out today, and the results vaguely resemble the numbers from Canalys. Perhaps more interesting than the ever present market share tug-of-war (Nielsen pegs Google, RIM, and Apple at 27 percent, 33 percent, and 23 percent in sales to new smartphone subscribers, respectively) a note on brand loyalty turns out ugly for BlackBerry: while 89 percent of iPhone owners plan on getting another iPhone, and 71 percent of Android buyers plan to re-up, only 42 percent of BlackBerry owners plan to stick around. The defectors are pretty evenly split, with 29 percent planning to go iPhone, and 21 percent to go Android. That compares to 2 and 3 percent in the iPhone and Android camps planning a move to BlackBerry. We'll see if BlackBerry 6 can solve this little problem for RIM, but the few tweaks we've seen so far seem hardly capable of stemming the flow.
Nielsen: Majority of gamers in the dark on Natal, Move
The Nielsen Company has released the results of a recent survey designed to gauge gamer awareness of Microsoft's Project Natal and Sony's PlayStation Move. Among the 2,400 gamers surveyed, 21 percent are currently aware of Natal, while 23 percent are aware of the Move. Things look a little better when restricting the results to those who actually own and play the 360 or PS3, with 39 percent of 360 gamers aware of Natal and 42 percent of PS3 gamers aware of the Move. Of the gamers aware of the Move and Natal, those who actually own the respective console show more intent to purchase. 42 percent of 360 owners plan to purchase Natal, compared to only 35 percent of total gamers aware of the device. PS3 owners show a nearly identical 41 percent with intent to purchase, compared to 28 percent of all those aware. Strangely, even though both Natal and Move have publicly known launch windows, a surprisingly high number of respondents -- nearly 40 percent -- don't know when the products will be available. Also noteworthy, respondents show a wide disparity as to what they believe the hardware prices will be. To the 6 percent who think Natal will be less than $25: you're going to be disappointed.
'iPhone vs Android' report finds Apple has three times Google's market share
It's oftentimes easy for us to get swept up in Android mania and forget that Google's mobile platform is still in its infancy. Then we get cold hard numbers like these -- showing iPhone OS owning 28 percent of the US smartphone market and closing in on RIM's leading 35 percent -- and we face up to the realization that Android handsets still account for less than one in every ten smartphones owned by Americans today. In spite of collecting 28 percent of all consumer smartphone purchases in the first quarter of 2010 (according to NPD), Google's OS was only able to climb up a couple of percentage points in terms of total market share, showing just how long a road lies ahead of its world-conquering plans. Guess that now explains why Apple's response to the earlier numbers was so nonchalant. Other intriguing figures include a high rate of loyalty among iPhone OS and Android users, with 80 percent of the former and 70 percent of the latter expressing a preference for the same OS in their next phone -- both rather shaming Microsoft and RIM's numbers, which were a mediocre 34 and 47 percent, respectively. Funnily enough, despite its inflammatory title, this report finds Android and iPhone users are more similar to each other than anyone else -- an uncomfortable fact for both parties to deal with, we're sure. The source link contains some more demographic comparisons, so why not go check them out and drop some sage analysis for us in the comments?
Nielsen finds 53% of homes have HDTVs, but only 46% can receive an HD signal
So close, and yet so far away. The good news from Nielsen's latest Television Audience Report is that it reaffirms a CTAM survey indicating HDTV ownership has finally crossed into the majority (up from just a third a year ago) however there's still a significant number of people out there who can't actually watch HDTV on their new set. Even accounting for the cable cutters who simply choose not to watch pay-TV on their display, that's still a significant number of people not getting everything they can out of their television set. We'd point out that these numbers should mean considerably more focus paid towards the high definition capable viewers but judging by recent events -- it would appear broadcasters and content producers have gotten the message. As the ruling majority, the only question left is what exactly should we do with this power?
Nielsen data: you're probably watching too much teevee
Nielsen's just released some zingers (also known as statistics) for you to chew on while you listen to a YouTube clip (something about Obamacare) drone on in another tab, tell your significant other to "hold on" and track your Domino's pizza in a completely different tab. The annual Three Screens report, as it's called, has some choice data on American habits, such as the fact that television consumption (average number of hours watched per day) has increased to nearly 35 hours per week per person. What else can we glean from this treasure chest of minutiae? Well, about 59 percent of Americans now multitask in front of the teevee with their laptops for an average of three and a half hours a month. A final interesting tidbit here -- flying in the face of popular wisdom, it seems that the older you are, the more television you're likely to watch -- so keep your eye on your great Aunt Dot, folks: it's possible she might be addicted to Gossip Girl. Hit the source link if you want to download the entire report (it's a PDF).
Nielsen study: Most households spend five percent of entertainment budget on games
While we're sure Leslie Nielsen knows his fair share about gaming, we're talking about Nielsen Media Research -- it's a firm most known for documenting who watches what on television in the United States. Nielsen Games has conducted a study into the buying habits of Americans, postulating that video games account for about five percent of the total entertainment budget for the average household. The information comes from a survey of over 3,000 U.S. consumers and uses the "share of wallet" idea for calculating monthly entertainment allowance. Basically, Nielsen took the percentage of money spent in a month on all possible entertainment options by a household and pulled this five percent figure from that -- however, households that were deemed to be "active buyers" of video games had a figure that was around double: nine percent. So, it's around five percent for those casual fans of gaming and about nine percent of monthly budget for active gaming households. It's also important to understand exactly what Nielsen considers video game content: new and used games; downloadable content; rentals; and peripheral sales. And, unfortunately, there's really no way to quantify these figures into dollars and cents -- different households have different budgets, which could inflate or deflate the figures. Nielsen promises a more comprehensive report on the subject this March with the inaugural Nielsen 360° Gaming Report: United States Market. Via Game Politics]
