Research Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

NPD: Mobile accounts for half of digital game downloads

by Mike Schramm (May 9th, 2011)

NPD has released a report that cites mobile games as a big driver for digital downloads overall. Digital game consumption has been growing in leaps and bounds lately, and according to the latest report, nearly half of all of those digital game downloads come from mobile game platforms, of ...

Rumor: Steam looking at iOS integration

by Mike Schramm (Mar 22nd, 2011)

This is interesting -- according to a Steam user who got to Valve headquarters in Washington, the popular game network may be looking at extending itself out onto the iOS platform. That doesn't necessarily mean that there would be a straight-up Steam client for the iPhone and the iPad (although ...

Apple is the most-covered tech company

by Dave Caolo (Sep 27th, 2010)

Here's a bit of news that's no shock to us. According to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, Apple receives more coverage from the press than any other tech company. The research center recently concluded a year-long study, which found that a full 15.1 percent of all ...

Ngmoco releases We City

by Mike Schramm (Sep 23rd, 2010)

Ngmoco has introduced its third title in the "We" series. We City arrives after We Rule and We Farm as the same kind of social simulation game. This time around, players will be building and creating their own cities, but other than the setting and the graphics, not too much has changed. Just like ...

New study questions extent of iPod-induced hearing loss

by Chris Rawson (Sep 22nd, 2010)

Have you heard? Apparently iPods cause hearing loss. A Journal of the American Medical Association study published in August found that 14.9 percent of teenagers aged 12-19 suffered from hearing loss from 1988-94; 19.5 percent of the same age group had hearing loss from 2005-06. Throw in another ...

Duke University to use iPads for field research

by David Winograd (Jul 21st, 2010)

This fall, the Duke University Global Health Institute in Durham, NC will embark on a pilot project using the iPad as a field research tool. Masters students enrolled in the Research Methods in Global Health Sciences II class will be broken up into groups of three, with each group being given a ...

iPhone grew more than Android in May

by Mel Martin (Jun 1st, 2010)

At least that's the word from Net Applications, the company that measures visits to clients websites. The latest report says the iPhone not only keeps a large lead over Android, but it actually enlarged its global share last month, going from 30.4. At the same time, Android increased from 5.3. If ...

Apple market share climbs to 6.8% in Europe

by Mike Schramm (May 27th, 2010)

Hardmac is reporting that Apple's market share in Europe has risen to 6.8%. That's not quite as high as the around 10% share for computers in the US, but it is a full two percentage points higher than it was last year. Windows still dominates in the EU, with 92% of all computers running some ...

Survey: iPad customer satisfaction is at 91%

by Dave Caolo (May 20th, 2010)

A pair of surveys from ChangeWave reinforce what we've suspected for the last month: People like the iPad a lot, and that's not about to change. The first survey of a whopping 153 people (I saw more in the supermarket this morning) found that 74% said they are "very satisfied" with their iPads, and ...

Average iPad app price is $1 more than iPhone apps

by Mike Schramm (May 4th, 2010)

Here's some more interesting stats about app pricing. We've heard pricing average stats before, including that the average app price seems to be hovering right around three dollars. But a firm in the Netherlands has done some more research into current iPad and iPhone app prices, and discovered that ...

US Army meets with Apple, discusses tech for soldiers

by Chris Rawson (Mar 23rd, 2010)

Earlier this month, Major General Nick Justice and several members of his staff traveled to Apple's Cupertino campus to discuss soldiers using Apple's products and technology in the field. In addition to having the most awesome name ever, Maj. Gen. Justice also heads the US Army's Research, ...

NPD: Apple ranked #5 US electronics retailer in 2009

by Kent Pribbernow (Feb 12th, 2010)

Market research firm NPD Group has published its annual report profiling the consumer retail sector for 2009, and guess who made the list of top five electronics retailers? Hint: If you guessed the Microsoft Store, you would be wrong, and everyone would be pointing and laughing at you right now. No, ...

Game developers on iPhone outnumber DS and PSP two-to-one

by Mike Schramm (Feb 8th, 2010)

Game Developer Research has published its 2009/10 survey of video game developers, and the results are pretty impressive for the still relatively fledgling iPhone platform: The number of developers who are working on mobile games increased by 12 percent, and there are actually twice as many ...

Report: One-fifth of smart phone buyers want Android

by Dave Caolo (Jan 5th, 2010)

Those incessant Droid ads are working, as consumer interest is climbing. Last December, ChangeWave Research conducted a study to determine what kinds of smartphones shoppers want. As in previous surveys, the iPhone topped the list. However, 21% of the 4,068 consumers who stated their intention to ...

Report: 12% of US households own a Mac

by Mike Schramm (Oct 5th, 2009)

A new NPD report says that 12% of US households now own a Mac of some kind. That's a nice gain -- just a year ago, back in 2008, the same stat was at 9 percent, so Apple has made nice jumps just in the last 12 months. But before you start crowing about Apple's impending superiority, here's another ...