UK iPad owners highly engaged with their devices – survey


28 Mar 2011

The vast majority of the UK’s iPad owners use their device every day of the week for a variety of purposes, from accessing the internet to watching TV, while nearly a quarter are on their iPads for more than two hours daily, according to a new survey carried out by YouGov for Seven.

The survey, conducted earlier this month with more than 1,000 adult participants, reveals that more than 87pc of owners use their iPad every day of the week, with 26pc doing so for half an hour to an hour per day, 32pc for one to two hours per day, and 24pc for more than two hours a day.

Interestingly, 63pc of respondents said that rather than being early adopters, they are people who normally wait for a gadget to become established before they buy it.

The most popular activities on the iPad include accessing the web (75pc do so at least every other day), emailing (63pc) and playing games (48pc), followed by social networking (41pc), researching products and services (29pc), reading books (25pc), listening to music (21pc) and shopping (19pc), then reading magazines (13pc), using the iPad for work (13pc) and watching TV (11pc).

More than half (51pc) of iPad owners who had read magazines in both print and interactive format on the iPad said they preferred the experience on the Apple device, compared with 23pc who favoured the print format.

As regards where people use their iPads, the survey found that 69pc of respondents use it in the bedroom and 42pc in the kitchen. Some 20pc of men, meanwhile, apparently can’t be parted from it in the bathroom.

Apps on iPads

The survey also found that 84pc of iPad owners would be likely to download an app from one of their favourite brands if it was free and non-subscription. Some 16pc said they have bought a branded app from a company.

Although free apps are almost twice as popular among iPad consumers as paid-for (the average UK iPad has 18 free apps on it and 10 paid-for), the survey finds that content is the key driver in app purchases and is more important to consumers than the price of the app when making a purchase decision.

Buying is most strongly influenced by the perceived usefulness of the app (64pc of owners who have downloaded an app before say this is very important), followed by the content itself (47pc), and then price (44pc). This is followed by friend recommendations (27pc), which is almost double the number (15pc) who say that recommendations by industry experts are very important.

The most powerful channels for driving awareness of iPad apps include word of mouth (53pc of app buyers), featured categories in the app store (49pc), charts in the app store (47pc) and reviews (33pc). Surprisingly, social media rates only 12pc.

The survey also indicates that advertising on iPad is seen in a more positive light than magazine advertising. More than a third (36pc) of iPad owners who have read magazines in print and in interactive format on the iPad agreed that ‘the iPad is the best way for companies to advertise to people like them’, while 24pc disagreed with this statement. Some 42pc said they are more likely to pay attention to interactive magazine advertising on the iPad than advertising in magazines and newspapers, with 31pc disagreeing.

Kevin Sutherland, director of strategy at Seven, said the study demonstrates that consumers of all ages are using iPad over other devices to consume media and engage with content in totally new ways.

“It’s a lean-back medium that consumers use to access content when relaxing – especially content from their favourite brands – but they are using it for classic lean-forward activities like shopping, too. Perhaps the key insight is just how quickly a brand’s presence on iPad via apps or advertising has gone from a novelty to a mandatory.”

Article courtesy of Businessandleadership.com