Lauren Goode

Recent Posts by Lauren Goode

Surprise! Consumers Dreaming of an Apple Christmas.

Consumers are dreaming of a white Christmas this holiday season — one filled with shiny white Apple products.

Ralphie iPhone

That’s according to new data from research firm Parks Associates, which recently surveyed 2,500 adults in the U.S. to measure consumer tech purchasing intent for the holidays.

Fifty-three percent of consumers planning to purchase a smartphone this season intend to buy an iPhone, Parks says — up from the 33 percent who said the same thing in the third quarter of this year, and up from 24 percent a year ago.

And when it comes to tablets, most of those surveyed said they’d prefer an iPad. Following the iPad at 44 percent was Kindle Fire, with 24 percent of consumers expressing interest in Amazon’s touchscreen tablet.

Twenty-one percent of those surveyed said they’d go with the Microsoft surface tablet — down from the 45 percent who just a few months ago said they wanted the Surface — and the Google Nexus tablet came in last at 12 percent.

Lastly, Parks writes, “When presented with the iPad Mini as a tablet alternative, many of those planning on purchasing other tablet brands opt for the iPad Mini.” So did many of those planning on buying an iPad: 40 percent, in fact, said they would opt for an iPad mini instead.

But it’s worth noting a few things about this report, the first being that the smartphone-lust portion of the survey only covers entire brands, not specific models. So Parks isn’t offering a breakdown of how many consumers say they’re enticed by the new iPhone 5 — and what percentage want the much cheaper, earlier-generation models of iPhone available now.

And the tablet data above is based on consumer sentiment when participants were presented with just those four options. Responses varied slightly when all tablet brands and models were considered.

Lastly, iPad cannibalization isn’t a new theory, nor is it a proven one yet. Prior to the mini’s launch, AllThingsD’s John Paczkowski reported on analysts’ predictions that the iPad mini would cut into sales of the regular ol’ iPad, but more recent data suggested the mini wasn’t immediately impacting sales as much as some thought it would.

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There’s a lot of attention and PR around Marissa, but their product lineup just kind of blows.

— Om Malik on Bloomberg TV, talking about Yahoo, the September issue of Vogue Magazine, and our overdependence on Google