Tablets Devices Great For Consumer Engagement

Tablet devices such as the iPad are rapidly gaining in popularity around the world, and many publishers are now targeting this platform.

Advertising revenue is always a key component of any publishing businesses, so many people would like to understand the effectiveness of advertising on tablets compared to other platforms such as e-readers or even standard paper publications.

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Millennial: iOS apps still half of ad revenues despite Android's growth

Although Google's Android mobile operating system now powers 33 percent of all U.S. smartphones, ahead of Apple's iOS at 25 percent (according to the latest comScore data), iOS remains the driving force behind mobile advertising revenues, mobile ad network Millennial Media reports.

IOS-based applications accounted for 47 percent of Millennial revenues in March 2011, with Android at 36 percent and Research In Motion's BlackBerry far behind at 7 percent. Windows Phone, Symbian and webOS are fighting for the remaining 10 percent of revenues, Millennial adds.

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Piper Jaffray: iPad 2 Totally Sold Out, 70% to New Buyers

Gene Munster's team at Piper Jaffray walked the iPad 2 lines in New York City and Minneapolis and interviewed 236 would-be buyers. They also called various retailers (Apple stores, Target, Best Buy, etc.) looking for product. The results of their survey were released Sunday night. Their findings:

>Munster is sticking with his estimate of 400,000 to 500,000 iPad 2s sold, compared with 300,000 iPad 1s in its first weekend last year.
>The difference is that nearly all those iPad 2s were sold in one day; stocks were essentially depleted by Saturday and not replenished. In its calls to retailers over the weekend, his team was unable to find a single iPad 2.
>70% of iPad 2 buyers were new to the iPad, compared with 23% of iPhone 4 buyers who were new to the iPhone at launch.
>Buyers were split almost evenly between Mac and PC users (51%/49%). By contrast, the split for the original iPad was 74%/26%.
>47% of buyers were purchasing a 3G model, which carries a $130 premium.
>41% purchased the 32GB iPad 2, up from 32% who bought the 32GB version of the original iPad. The 64GB models also gained a slight share. This means that the iPad 2's average selling price (ASP) at launch was considerably higher than original iPad's.
>65% of buyers owned an iPhone, 24% owned a Kindle (up from 13% of original iPad buyers), but only 6% plan to read with their iPad (down from 19% in Piper Jaffray's first iPad survey).
>17% expect to use apps and play games, up from 9%, which suggests that the App Store ecosystem is growing.

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iPad 2 Announced

Fifteen million iPads have sold since the device shipped less than a year ago, said Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the iPad 2 press conference on March 2. We can expect at least another 20 million iPads to be sold, representing 80% of all tablet sales in the U.S. in 2011, according to Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps.

As expected, iPad 2 will be faster, lighter and thinner than its predecessor. It has front- and back-facing cameras, as well as the gyroscope movement sensor we've seen on iPhones.

While the iPhone has had a camera for some time, its unlikely apps on the less portable and bigger iPad will use cameras in the exact same ways.

"I don't see it being used heavily for barcode or QR scanning, which is one of the more common uses of the iPhone cameras, but there's some interesting potential for things like augmented reality," said Jeremy Lockhorn, VP-emerging media for Razorfish. Some marketers may also test "click to call" features from ads or apps to video chat, Mr. Lockhorn said.

Matthew Szymczyk, CEO of interactive agency Zugara, said the front-facing camera will mean more people video chatting, making yet another way for consumers to get used to that type of interaction. Users can now use FaceTime, Apple's brand of video chat. But for brands the camera could also mean live, one-on-one customer service via video chat.

With faster processing, the iPad 2 will likely open doors for bigger, badder browser-based apps. While browser-based apps are popular because they can be viewed on multiple devices, what's been possible on iPad has been limited because of built-in restrictions on its browser. But iPad 2's new horsepower will likely allow more speed on browsers, thus more powerful web apps.

The device's new HDMI output -- a way to pipe what's on iPad off to to a larger flat-screen -- will also mean app experiences can become bigger and more shareable, said Sapient's Mr. Singh. "The output changes how sharing around the device can really happen," he said. "Web surfing or apps can now be shared on a 59-inch monitor." With one cord, the iPad goes from personal device to fixture in the living room.

The iPad's new speed makes media multitasking possible, said Mr. Lockhorn. "Nearly 40% of time spent on the mobile internet happens at home, and a lot of that is driven by using mobile and tablets in front of the TV," he said, which means more apps such as Nielsen's Media Sync that syncs content on the iPad with what's on the tube.

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iPad 2 Expected to Be Announced March 2

Apple on Wednesday sent the news media an official invitation to an event that is expected to showcase the next iPad.

The e-mail said Apple would be holding an “invitation-only event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco on March 2.” Although invitations to Apple events are usually cryptic, this announcement was less subtle, as it shows a calendar page peeling back to reveal an iPad.

The iPad 2 is expected to be thinner and lighter than the current model, which weighs 1.5 pounds. People who have seen cases for the new iPad believe it will have a shape similar to the current iPod Touch. The device is also expected to have front- and rear-facing cameras.

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iPad 2 Production Rumors Swirl

Apple's iPad got an iOS 4.2 update just in time to let the devices perform a few new tricks for the holidays this year, but exactly what the company's next generation of tablet hardware will be capable of is still largely a mystery. If the iPad follows suit with Apple's other iProducts, it should be due for a refresh in 2011, and a new report claims that the iPad 2 will be in production no later than February.


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iPad Sales to More Than Double Next Year

Apple will have sold 8.5 million iPads in the US by the end of this year, eMarketer estimates. That makes up the vast majority of total US tablet sales, at 88%.

iPad sales in particular and tablet sales overall will increase dramatically over the next two years. Nearly 20 million of Apple’s shiny touchscreen devices will be sold next year, an increase of 127%, and by 2012 sales will surpass 30 million. Meanwhile, the tablet market will diversify and the iPad’s share will decline somewhat, to 74% of the total by 2012.


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Apple Mobile Market Domination Extending to 2011: Report

Michael Walkley, a technology industry analyst with Cannacord Genuity, believes Apple will continue to dominate the global market for mobile devices in 2011.

“Based on continued strong sell-through trends for the iPad and the iPhone, we believe Apple will maintain both market and value share leadership in these fast growing markets through C2012,” Mr. Walkley said in a note to clients on Thursday.

Walkley expects the iPad’s ownership of the tablet PC market to drop from 76% in 2010 to 48% in 2011, though he argues Apple will still be positioned to take “well above 80%” of the profits for the tablet market both this year and next.

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Apple iPad, iPhone Sales Will Remain Strong Through Holidays: Analyst

Apple's holiday sales will remain strong, says an analyst from Ticonderoga Securities. While certainly no surprise given the company's performance throughout 2010, the new research note counterbalances some concerns about both the general weakness of the economy and analyst reports suggesting sales of iPads and other devices will underwhelm.

"With the powerful combination of Apple's iPad, iPhone 4, refreshed iPod/iPod Touch portfolio, the new MacBook Air and Apple TV, we believe Apple is positioned for a big holiday season this year," Brian White, an analyst with Ticonderoga Securities, wrote in a Nov. 29 research note. "Regardless of the overall strength during Black Friday and the holiday season at large, we believe Apple has the products that consumers demand."

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Kindle Feels iPad’s Heat, Sees E-Reader Lead Going Up in Smoke

According to a new survey from ChangeWave, the iPad has doubled its share of the e-reader market since August and is now just 15 percentage points shy of the Kindle.

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Nielsen: Most iPad owners downloading premium apps

Sixty-three percent of iPad owners have downloaded premium applications to the tablet device, according to a new consumer survey published by market research firm Nielsen.

Games top all paid iPad download categories, acquired by 62 percent of all premium app consumers--books follow at 54 percent, trailed by music (50 percent), shopping (45 percent) and news (also 45 percent). Nielsen adds that 5 percent of iPad owners download only free apps, and 32 percent have yet to download any applications at all.


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81% of App Store Downloads are Free

Piper Jaffray research indicates that free apps account for about 4 billion total App Store downloads. iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users presently download over 16.6 million applications each day, almost double the 8.9 million daily downloads via Apple's iTunes multimedia storefront. Average selling price among the top 50 premium App Store applications for iPhone and iPod touch is $1.49. Among the top 30 paid iPad apps, the average price jumps to $4.66.

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