Perhaps you've noticed that parent's of toddlers are inclined to let their children play on their Apple iPad, particularly during those moments when restlessness sets in. You don't see parents handing over their Amazon Kindle in the same way.
It turns out that Kindle users do tend to be older whereas iPad users skew younger. Not as young as a three-year-old, but younger nonetheless.
Besides the demographic differences, a notable finding in the newly-released Nielsen study on mobile users was that users are more receptive to advertising on the iPad. This is good knowledge for anyone seeking to put advertising on mobile devices. Getting your message to people who are not receptive to your product or service can not only waste your cash, but breed a sense of annoyance. So, if you don't want to be seen as spammy, you have to know who is cool with looking at ads and what devices create a better environment for them to be seen.
Taking a deep dive into the demographics, the study finds iPad users tend to be younger than users of the Kindle, as mentioned above. They also skew male: 65% of iPad users are male and 63% of them are under 35.
Unlike the iPad's more young-and-male demographic, Kindle users are near evenly split between male and female users, with 48% of the users being women. The Nielsen study also shows that 57% of the users of the Kindle are over 34.
Since Kindle owners are older than iPad users, then it's no surprise that they're making more money. A sizable 44% make more than $80,000 a year (compared to only 39 % of iPad owners and 37% of iPhone owners). They also tend to be more educated, with 27% of owners of the Kindle device sporting a Master’s degree, or a doctorate. This is why the Kindle user skews older.
If you look at a graduate school, for example, the Fletcher Graduate School at Tufts, the average age of an entering graduate student, for Master or PhD, is 27. With time to degree completion running roughly two and five years, respectively, we can see that Kindle's audience is much older then the iPad's users, in general.
As it turns out, if you want to market on mobile devices, the iPad crowd is the way to go. The research found, that iPad owners are more receptive to the idea of having advertising on their touchscreen tablet, than owners of other devices. Of course, if you go this route, you are going to have to go interactive. That is, if you want your end users to enjoy it. 46% of iPad owners say they enjoy ads, with interactive features. This is a significantly larger group, than the general connected device owners, who come in at about 27% enjoying the ads.
Finally, the most important part of any ad campaign is the conversion to a purchase. The Nielsen survey stated in its results,"iPad owners are also the most likely to have made a purchase as a result of seeing an ad on their connected device," though they did not provide any specifics on the conversion numbers.
