Hasta La Gadget!

A new survey by the Nielsen Company shows that one third of iPad owners have never downloaded an application. In a section titled “A majority of iPad owners have already paid for content” fully 32% of iPad owners asked said that they “did not download an app.” This compares to 63% who had downloaded a paid app, and 5% who had only downloaded a free app.

The Nielsen survey polled “5,000 connected device owners who completed an online, self-administered survey,” but the actual number of iPad owners in this 5,000 isn’t specified, but one third seems an astonishingly high number, especially given that apps are so easy to buy, and you pretty much have to sign up to the iTunes Store just to get started with any iDevice.

Less surprising is the breakdown of paid downloads. Games are the top choice, with 62% of responders having bought one, closely followed by books (54%) and music (50%).

If these figures are actually meaningful (ie. if the self-selecting sample-group actually contains more than a few dozen iPad owners) then perhaps the app store isn’t the competitive advantage that Apple believes it to be. Perhaps all you really need in a store is Angry Birds and a copy of the Kama Sutra.

Connected Devices: Does the iPad Change Everything? [Nielsen Company blog]

See Also:

• The State of Mobile App Stores Summarized in Charts
• Independent App Stores Take On Google's Android Market
• Feds Get Their Own App Store
• Google Says Mobile App Stores Have No Future