Independent research boutique ChangeWave surveyed 3,171 consumers and found that consumer pre-launch interest in the iPad is high.
Data demonstrates that consumers are more interested in purchasing an iPad than they were the iPhone prior to launch. Also, 27% of existing e-reader owners indicated they would have purchased the iPad over the model they own now.
The study — which was conducted after the iPad announcement — also shows that 40% of respondents in the market to purchase an e-reader in the next 90 days say they will buy an iPad.
That number is quite remarkable on its own, but when compared with the respondents who indicated preferences for the Kindle (28%), Nook (6%) and Sony Reader (1%) the bigger picture starts to become clear. If these numbers are reflective of the larger population, Apple is most certainly a threat to Amazon and the e-book/e-reader industry as a whole.
Some other interesting highlights from the ChangeWave study include:
- Prospective iPad buyers are likely to wait a few months before they make their purchase. Twenty percent will buy two to three months after release, 23% four to six months after release, and 19% seven to 12 months after release.- Sixty-eight percent of prospective iPad owners are most interested in using the iPad to surf the Internet.- Twenty-five percent of consumers buying iPads may cut back on previous plans to purchase other Apple products. Ten percent are putting their iPhone purchase plans on hold, while 9% are saying they may not buy the laptop or iPod they had previously planned to.
- Prospective iPad buyers are likely to wait a few months before they make their purchase. Twenty percent will buy two to three months after release, 23% four to six months after release, and 19% seven to 12 months after release.
- Sixty-eight percent of prospective iPad owners are most interested in using the iPad to surf the Internet.
- Twenty-five percent of consumers buying iPads may cut back on previous plans to purchase other Apple products. Ten percent are putting their iPhone purchase plans on hold, while 9% are saying they may not buy the laptop or iPod they had previously planned to.
Given that the iPad launch date is just a few weeks away, we should soon be able to tell how accurate some of these findings are and whether or not the iPad will put a significant dent into Amazon Kindle sales.
[via TUAW]
Tags: amazon kindle, Apple iPad, Apple Tablet, ereaders, Kindle, stats
Enterprising hobbyists Tim Heath and Ryan Hickman have created cellbots — with names like Tankbot and Truckbot — that are simply robots powered by Android devices.
With just $30, an Android device, and a little creativity the pair were able to create the cellbots that process commands via telnet on PCs. The bots can move around in specified directions thanks to the built-in compass functionally on certain Android phones.
While actual robot activity is minimal, the focus of the project was to utilize Android phones as the brains of the robots. The pair hope to expand robot functionality and make the most of Android’s software. Wired speculates that:
“This means they could utilize every hardware and software component of an Android phone, programming the bot to avoid obstacles, recognize faces and voices, pinpoint its location and go places.”
Heath and Hickman have documented the entire project on their cellbots website, which means that with the right know-how you too could create your own Android-powered robot.
Watch a video of the robots with Android intelligence below:
Tags: android, cellbots, robots
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Not one to mince words, Steve Jobs squashed all hope of the iPad supporting iPhone tethering for wireless Internet access with one word — “No.”
The succinct answer was communicated by Jobs via e-mail (from his iPhone) to Jezper Söderlund of Sweden who e-mailed Jobs to ask, “Will the wifi-only version somehow support tethering thru my iPhone?”
9to5Mac has both e-mails in question, along with e-mail header information, and all indications point to the one word buzzkill response being legit. You can read the text of the e-mail inquiry and Jobs’s response below:
Söderlund’s e-mail:
“I’ll keep it short.I’m Jezper from Sweden, a long time Apple fan, currently about to replace the very last computer at home with a brand spanking new iMac i7. I’m also awaiting the release of the iPad. However, I have one question:Will the wifi-only version somehow support tethering thru my iPhone?Two devices, based on the same OS, with already built-in technology to share one data plan suggests a secondary contract could possibly be redundant.From the look of your keynote, where the iPad sits well between my MacBook Pro and my iPhone, I was hoping the three of them could interact as seamless as possible.All the best, Jezper Söderlund[a famous DJ in his own right]“
“I’ll keep it short.
I’m Jezper from Sweden, a long time Apple fan, currently about to replace the very last computer at home with a brand spanking new iMac i7. I’m also awaiting the release of the iPad. However, I have one question:
Will the wifi-only version somehow support tethering thru my iPhone?
Two devices, based on the same OS, with already built-in technology to share one data plan suggests a secondary contract could possibly be redundant.
From the look of your keynote, where the iPad sits well between my MacBook Pro and my iPhone, I was hoping the three of them could interact as seamless as possible.
All the best, Jezper Söderlund[a famous DJ in his own right]“
Jobs’ response:
“No.Sent from my iPhone”
“No.
Sent from my iPhone”
The bottom line is that those of you who were hoping to buy the cheaper Wi-Fi version of the iPad and tether your iPhone for 3G Internet access (and avoid the additional 3G hardware costs and AT&T subscription plan) are out of luck.
From a consumer perspective, the news is quite disappointing. One would hope that the costly iPhone data plan would be applicable to the iPad. The idea of paying a per device monthly wireless Internet fee is one that won’t sit well with most consumers. The decision doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, though. We already know that AT&T is facing network challenges, which they blame on heavy iPhone users, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to encourage or support additional bandwidth without additional fees.
Tags: Apple iPad, Apple Tablet, att, iphone tethering, steve jobs
For complete SXSW coverage, check out Mashable’s SXSW channel.
Popular music magazine SPIN is going geeky for South by Southwest’s music festival, integrating custom Foursquare badges into its event presence and rewarding the most adventurous users of the location-based game with free tickets to its annual music showcase at Stubb’s.
Festival goers who check in at music venues can earn points and collect the four custom SPIN badges. Each badge — should you attempt to unlock it — offers a unique experience of the festival and turns the SXSW music experience into a complex scavenger hunt.
Don’t expect these badges to come easy. To earn the SPINsider badge, users will need to check out three bands that SPIN editors recommend. For the Trailblazer badge, users are tasked to see three shows outside of downtown Austin. As for the Animal Collector badge, that requires seeing three bands with an animal in their name, while the Bands on the Run challenges the most die-hard of fans to see seven bands in one day.
Of course those that make the effort to unlock the badges could be gifted with a handsome reward — two free tickets to SPIN’s annual showcase SPIN@STUBB’s, which features both up-and-coming artists and more recognizable names like Hole. Unlock the badges and be one of the first 10 people to present them at the SPIN loft and the tickets are yours.
SPIN’s Foursquare badge challenge is quite remarkable. From our perspective we see this partnership as a sign that Foursquare’s service transcends the techset, appeals to mainstream audiences, and can apply to any vertical.
Tags: foursquare, music, spin magazine, sxsw, sxsw2010, sxswi
The battle for social geolocation domination has expanded to Google’s Android platform, as Gowalla, the primary competitor to Foursquare, has just made its debut in Google’s Android app store.
The new Gowalla 1.0 app isn’t some secondhand version of its iPhone counterpart — it’s completely packed with an array of features that allow you to check in to locations, view friends, access details about specific locations and check out your progress completion for trips (a Gowalla feature that lets you earn badges by checking into a set of locations).
Essentially, the app is divided into four sections: Activity (a feed of your friend’s activity stream), Spots (where you find nearby locations to check in to), Trips (explained above) and Passport (your personal profile and list of achievements). Each section drills deeper, allowing you to add friends, view maps of specific locations (along with the number of checkins and people there) or complete a trip.
Here’s the gist of it: Gowalla for Android, from first impressions, is well-designed and has many of the features of its iPhone counterpart, though as Android and Me points out, you can’t create a location within the app quite yet.
It needed to be slick and feature-rich to compete with Foursquare’s Android app (which I think in many ways is superior to its iPhone version). Whether it succeeded…well, that’ll take some time to know. Gowalla users, be sure to tell us what you think about the app in the comments.
Now here are a few screenshots, courtesy of Android and Me. You can check out a full gallery there.
Tags: android, App, apps, foursquare, gowalla, trending
The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv this week:
We had a very hotly contested matchup this week in our long-running Faceoff series, with Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE going up against Sony’s PlayStation Network for favorite online console gaming service. After an astounding 35,055 votes we’re ready to declare the winner…
… and Xbox LIVE takes the win! They’ll obviously get an achievement rather than a trophy for this victory. Just a day or so ago the polls were holding steadily even so it was definitely in the home stretch here that XBLA pulled ahead. The final tally reads 19,858 for Xbox LIVE (57%) and 14,258 for PSN (41%), with a surprisingly small tie vote of only 939 (3%).
Thanks to everyone who voted this week! Were you disappointed with the results? Sound off in the comments!
Week 1: - Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome - WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)
Week 2: - Tumblr vs. Posterous - WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)
Week 3: - Pandora vs. Last.fm - WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156 votes, Tie: 122 votes)
Week 4: - Twitter vs. Facebook - WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)
Week 5: - WordPress vs. Typepad - WINNER: WordPress, 2714 votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 357 votes)
Week 6: - Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard - WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 votes, Tie: 121 votes)
Week 7: - TweetDeck vs. Seesmic Desktop - WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 votes (Seesmic Desktop: 1055 votes, Tie: 260 votes)
Week 8: - Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs - WINNER: Microsoft Office, 1365 votes (Google Docs: 994 votes, Tie: 315 votes)
Week 9: - Apple iPhone vs. Google Android - WINNER: Google Android, 3323 votes (Apple iPhone: 1494 votes, Tie: 228 votes)
Week 10: - AT&T vs. Verizon - WINNER: Verizon, 1161 votes (AT&T: 538 votes, Tie: 118 votes)
Week 11: - Google vs. Bing - WINNER: Google, 2180 votes (Bing: 519 votes, Tie: 97 votes)
Week 12: - iPod Touch/iPhone vs. Nintendo DS vs. Sony PSP - WINNER: iPod Touch/iPhone, 704 votes (Sony PSP: 639 votes, Nintendo DS: 482 votes, Tie: 108 votes)
Week 13: - Digg vs. Reddit vs. StumbleUpon - WINNER: Digg, 14,762 votes (Reddit: 11,466 votes, StumbleUpon: 2507 votes, Tie: 1032 votes)
Week 14: - Old versus new Twitter retweets - WINNER: Old style retweets, 1625 votes (New style retweets: 699 votes, Tie: 227 votes)
Week 15: - Gmail vs. Outlook - WINNER: Gmail, 3684 votes (Outlook: 980 votes, Tie: 590 votes)
Week 16: - Boxee vs. Hulu - WINNER: Hulu, 626 votes (Boxee: 591 votes, Tie: 106 votes)
Week 17: - Nexus One vs. iPhone 3GS - WINNER: Nexus One, 6743 votes (iPhone 3GS: 2818 votes, Tie: 592 votes)
Week 18: - Foursquare vs. Yelp vs. Gowalla - WINNER: Foursquare, 1182 votes, (Yelp: 661 votes, Gowalla: 509 votes, Tie: 143 votes)
Week 19: - AIM vs. GTalk vs. FbChat - WINNER: GTalk, 2189 votes, (AIM: 1257 votes, FbChat: 511 votes, Tie: 203 votes)
Week 20: - Music Ownership vs. Music Subscription - WINNER: Ownership, 533 votes (Subscription: 299 votes, Tie: 237)
Week 21: - Match.com vs. PlentyofFish - WINNER: Plenty of Fish, 430 votes (Match.com: 334 votes, Tie: 187 votes)
Week 21: - Google Buzz vs. Facebook Vs. Twitter - WINNER: Facebook, 3353 votes (Twitter: 1828 votes, Google Buzz: 1298 votes, Tie: 651 votes)
Week 22: - HTML5 vs. Adobe Flash - WINNER: HTML5, 3892 votes (Adobe Flash: 1779 votes, Tie: 660 votes)
Tags: gaming, microsoft, playstation, playstation network, polls, PSN, sony, video games, web faceoff, xbla, xbox, XBox live
