Apple has a hugn lock on what kids want for Christmas this holiday, Nielsen found on Thursday. Among US children aged six to 12, 44 percent wanted an iPad. The company also swept the top three, with the iPod touch at 30 percent and the usually unobtainable iPhone at 27 percent.
Their equivalent non-Apple devices were much lower. Only 25 percent wanted a tablet that wasn’t an iPad, and 19 percent wanted a smartphone from another platform. Apple’s dominance of music meant that non-iPod MP3 players didn’t register on the list.
Among consoles, Nintendo saw better news as the 3DS led demand at 25 percent, just edging out the Kinect add-on for the Xbox 360, albeit trailing the iPod touch that’s now its main competition. Sony’s PS3 was outpacing the Xbox 360 itself, at 17 percent to 16 percent. The Wii had now passed its limelight as just 11 percent of kids wanted the once-leading system.
Results shifted more in others’ favors with teens and adults. The iPad was still the leader by a clear margin at 24 percent, but the next closest demand came from computers and e-readers, each tied at 18 percent. Apple was still usually picked over others with equivalents, but with narrower leads. Non-iPad tablets were on 17 percent of wish lists, while 15 percent wanted an iPhone to 14 percent alternatives. Older gamers much more preferred Kinect (12 percent) over the Wii and PS3 (nine each) and the 3DS (five).
In both age groups, demand for the iPad was noticeably higher than it was last year, when 31 percent of those under 12 and 18 percent of those over asked for the tablet. The figures suggested that the iPad might have “paved the way” for rivals, according to Nielsen, but that the Android-based rivals were mostly replacing other, more traditional gifts.
