As Black Friday and the holiday season approaches, Apple appears to be the consumer electronics brand to beat. A recent Nielsen survey shows kids’ holiday gaming and electronics appetites are whet by a number of top-selling Apple devices – with the iPad leading the pack.
Consistent with U.S. kids’ 2010 wish lists, the Apple iPad is the most desired consumer electronic among kids ages 6-12 for holiday 2011. In fact, the iPad increases its stronghold, with nearly half (44%) of kids expressing interest in the product, up from 31 percent in 2010. Two other popular Apple devices – iPod Touch (30%) and iPhone (27%) – round out kids’ top three, with computers and other tablet brands each appealing to a quarter of younger consumers.
Among consumers ages 13 and older, appeal for the iPad (24%) has also broadened relative to last year (18%), and exceeds that of computers (18%), 2010’s top item. Further, it appears the iPad has successfully paved the way for other tablet offerings, as a notable 17 percent of adults/teens also express interest in non-Apple tablets.
E-Readers (18%) also exhibit heightened appeal among teens and adults compared to last year (15%), while gaming devices on the whole are somewhat less likely to be of interest to the 13+ crowd. The exception is Kinect for Xbox 360, which appeals to 12 percent of those ages 13+, compared to eight percent in 2010; though, notably, last year’s data was collected prior to the product’s well-supported, large-scale launch on November 4, 2010.
With so many products to choose from across both existing and emerging technologies, electronics are well-positioned to find their way onto shoppers’ lists again this season – and parents will clearly have some tough decisions to make as they weigh kids’ wants against their holiday budgets.
More insights on gamers, console dynamics, and allocations of time and money within gaming and the broader entertainment category will be featured in the third annual Nielsen 360° Gaming Report: U.S. Market, available in January. Additionally, an overview of key findings from the 2010 version of the report can now be downloaded here.
Survey conducted among a general population sample of n=3,000 in the United States, October 2011.
Source: Nielsen
It would be interesting to see the correspondence between the 2010 survey results and the actual purchasing patterns that followed. Do parent purchases correspond to kid preferences?
remember when nintendo was at the top of the list?
if i was a kid i’d still rather a nintendo rather than an ipad
Sure but the Wii is pushing 7 years old now and the 3DS just does not have a good game lineup to attract much interest at this point.
Kids can afford to but themselves games for the iPad
When could they ever afford to buy themselves games for a Nintendo
Boom.
—SJ
After just watching a video of a Steve demo I wish to append that quote to:
and… Boom!
—SJobs
No brainer. Everybody except the haters want Apple.
I feel sorry for Apple haters. 🙁
Now I think I’ll go feel happy for me. 😀
I feel sorry for the kids who get Zuned this year. You know, when the salesman at Best Buy sluffs off a piece of shit Android counterfeit iPhone or iPad on the clueless parent just as they sluffed off Zunes for the poor kids who wanted iPods in years past. It’s a damned shame.