SEARCHES FOR 'IPOD NANO' OVERTAKE 'IPOD'
Visits to Apple.com higher than during Holiday 2004
NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2005— With the release of the iPod Nano, Apple again sparked intense excitement among enthusiasts and reasserted its dominance in the digital-music-player market. In fact, Internet search behavior data indicate excitement around Apple's iPod Nano surpassing that of last year's iPod mini promotion, putting the sleek device on track to become the hottest gift item for 2005.
According to Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive intelligence service, U.S. searches for 'ipod nano' surged 133 percent the week ending Sept. 24, 2005 versus the week of the product launch (week ending Sept. 10, 2005), and the market share of total Internet visits to the Apple Web site (www.apple.com) skyrocketed past peak levels during the 2004 holiday shopping season.
"The iPod has consistently been one of the most searched for items on the Internet in the past year," said Bill Tancer, general manager of worldwide research at Hitwise. "The share of searches on the iPod nano has eclipsed any other iPod product in the past year, suggesting that the consumer love-affair with the iPod has been reinvigorated with this product introduction."
'iPod Nano': Apple Store’s Customer Acquisition Weapon
For the four weeks ending Sept. 24, 2005, 52 percent of Internet searches for the term "ipod nano" directly resulted in a visit to the Apple site (www.apple.com) or Apple Store (store.apple.com). The term benefited other retailers as well, directly driving traffic to: CircuitCity (3.3 percent of all visits) Amazon.com (1.76 percent) and Just Discounted.com (1.5 percent). Among all U.S. Internet searches during the four weeks ending Sept. 24, the term "ipod nano" ranked number 110.
Nano’s First Fans Are Image-Conscious Urban Social Groups
Visitors to the Apple Store were 53 percent male, and 31 percent were in the 18-24 year-old age group for the four weeks ending September 17, 2005. Claritas PRIZM NE segmentation data show that Internet users residing in the urban social groups "Urban Uptown," "Midtown Mix" were 43 percent and 37 percent more likely to visit the Apple Store in that same period. Those groups are comprised of middle and upper class residents of densely populated urban areas.
iPod nano Search Term Data
Period - 4 weeks ending September 24, 2005
Sites receiving visits from the search term "ipod nano"
Rank
Domain
Volume of Visits
1.
www.apple.com
29.24%
2.
store.apple.com
22.78%
3.
www.circuitcity.com
3.33%
4.
www.yahoo.com
1.90%
5.
www.engadget.com
1.85%
6.
www.amazon.com
1.76%
7.
www.arstechnica.com
1.76%
8.
www.bizrate.com
1.47%
9.
www.justdiscounted.com
1.47%
10.
www.myspace.com
1.43%
Most popular search terms containing "nano"
Rank
Domain
Volume of Searches
1.
ipod nano
52.90%
2.
i pod nano
3.08%
3.
nano ipod
1.99%
4.
apple ipod nano
1.89%
5.
nano
1.89%
6.
ipod nano review
1.26%
7.
apple nano
1.19%
8.
ipod nano reviews
1.00%
9.
i-pod nano
0.96%
10.
ipod nano accessories
0.70%
Contact: For media inquiries or to schedule an analyst interview, please contact Lizzie Babarczy: press@hitwise.com (212) 380 2910.
About Hitwise:
Hitwise is the world's leading online competitive intelligence service. Each day, Hitwise monitors how more than 25 million Internet users interact with over 500,000 websites across 160 industry categories.
By monitoring more people, more websites, more often, Hitwise provides marketers with timely and actionable marketing insights on how their online presence compares to competitive websites. Companies use this information to maximize the return on their online investment, in efforts such as search marketing, affiliate programs, online advertising, visitor segmentation, content development and lead generation.
Hitwise collects Internet usage information via a combination of ISP data partnerships and opt-in mega panels, and complies with local and international privacy legislation as audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Founded in 1997, Hitwise is a privately held company, headquartered in New York City and operates in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.
More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com
