Sep 20, 2012
This research looks at how tablet technology has, and will, affect the population in terms of media consumption and behaviour.
In April 2010 Apple launched the iPad in the USA to much media fanfare and excitement: overnight queues outside Apple stores; thousands of uploads to YouTube of videos showing people opening their new iPad and reviewing it; the media referring to Apple Stores as “Churches”. Tablets smashed the ‘Speed to 50 Million Unit Sales” record, taking just 2 years to achieve this level of penetration, compared to laptops which took 15 years and smartphones which took 7 years to reach this milestone.
Knowing the UK launch was on its way, Total Media wanted to understand if and how the tablet computer, driven by the launch of the iPad, would change the media landscape and influence how we plan our clients’ communications.
Our primary objective was to understand how the tablet would affect the mass market’s media consumption and provide our clients and prospects with research and innovation linked to the future of media.
The thinking and making it happen: Our research combined both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative element recruited multiple Early Majority consumers, ranging from Trevor, a 64 year old man who loves brass banding, to Laura, a stay at home mum of three children aged under 6. Participants were given an iPad and kept a diary of their adoption and usage. Each participant took part in 6 bi-monthly face-to-face video interviews. In order to build further substantiation to our qualitative insights we then carried out a quantitative survey amongst 1,000 respondents.