scottklenn: iPad 2, iPhone 4S top holiday wish lists

Thursday, November 17, 2011

iPad 2, iPhone 4S top holiday wish lists

Sodahead

By Athima Chansanchai

In a recent poll, Apple comes out on top with the most desired gifts of the holiday season: the iPad 2 and the Siri-hyped iPhone 4S, though the recent response to Amazon's Kindle Fire could prove to make more than a dent on many a wish list.

SodaHead.com, a discussion community with more than 10 million unique visitors a month, polled its users during the week of Nov. 7?to ask about?holiday gift giving. Over 3,000 votes were recorded.?Over 70,000 votes per day are cast across all of the site's polls.?

Of the 638 who responded to the question about which tablet they'd want to unwrap the most, 65 percent said they'd love the iPad 2. Twenty-four percent of respondents lust after the Kindle Fire and 11 percent said they'd want Barnes & Nobles' Nook Tablet.

But, the recent release of the Kindle Fire has fueled speculation that it might be the go-to tablet gift this season, with one analyst predicting Amazon could sell 5 million by the end of the year. And, another recent survey by Retrevo found that 44 percent of those who responded positively to buying a tablet this holiday season would choose the Kindle Fire instead of the iPad 2. But again, the iPad is a behemoth to beat, selling 11 million of both the first and second-gen models in the third quarter.

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What do you want for Xmas?

But overall in terms of tech gift giving, the iPad 2 is topped by its smaller cousin, the iPhone 4S, when 507 people answered the question, "What will the hottest tech gadget of the season be?" Thirty-nine percent of respondents are hoping to get the iPhone 4S, while 31 percent hope an iPad 2 appears under their trees. The Kindle Fire received 17 percent of the votes and the Xbox Kinect, 13 percent.

The 290 consumers who responded to what they thought kids want most for the holidays put videogames at the top of wish lists with 51 percent, followed by computers at 32 percent, toys and games at 10 percent and movies and music at 8 percent.

Apps also seem to be cropping up as a gift idea, with 41 percent of 773 respondents answering in the affirmative to the question of if apps would make good Christmas presents. But they were the minority, with 59 percent saying they wouldn't make good gifts.

And in general, tech gifts fall below money/gift cards and vacations as expected gifts, according to the 1,152 who responded to Sodahead. See the entire infographic based on the survey: