Updated with comments on methodology below. Also I discuss the results on an LA radio station here. The iPad is one of the more controversial mainstream technology products in recent memory. Some love it, others think it’s pointless. Naturally, the debaters believe that their opinions are about the product. I actually think it’s more about them and their personal differences. Recent MyType survey data backs me up, indicating that behind the controversy is a personality clash between selfish elites and independent geeks. Check out the full iPad Opinion Profile for all the numbers and colorful charts, or keep reading for the highlights.
The Study
From March through May of 2010 MyType surveyed over 20,000 of its users on Facebook about Apple’s iPad to reveal the personality traits, values, demographics and interests that drive differences in opinion about the new tablet computer. After weighting the responses to reflect the composition of the general internet-using US population, at least between the ages of 13 and 49 (we need more Beatles’ era users), we were happy to discover that our numbers were in line with results from a recent Forrestor survey.
Opinions about the iPad weighted to reflect the composition of the general internet using population in the US between the ages of 13 and 49
The first number that jumps out is the 54% that simply aren’t interested in the iPad, i.e. the dark blue and green slices in the pie chart. As would be expected with such a common opinion, a lack of interest in the iPad does not say much about who you are. The real psychographic gold was hiding in the extreme segments: the 3% who either already bought one or plan to buy one very soon (Owners) and the 11% who criticized it as a silly product (Critics).
Selfish Elites, Independent Geeks
Apple’s marketing tends to feature the iPad as a sexy leisure device for watching movies, reading books, browsing the internet and flipping through family photos. Despite this, we found that people interested in business and finance are much more likely to be iPad Owners than those interested in movies, music, books and literature, the arts, the internet, video games, shopping, food and drink, nightlife or family. While this seems at odds with Apple’s marketing, it makes sense in the context of the Owners’ general psychographic profile. iPad Owners are an elite bunch. They’re wealthy, highly educated and sophisticated. They value power and achievement much more than others. They’re also selfish, scoring low on measures of kindness and altruism. As can be seen in the chart below, we found that people with all or most of these qualities, whom we call selfish elites, are roughly 6 times more likely to be an iPad Owner than the average person.
Roughly 18% of selfish elites are iPad Owners, making them up to 6 times more likely to own an iPad than the average person. Note that we include people who plan to buy an iPad soon in the "iPad Owner" category. Independent geeks are up to 3 times more likely than the average person to be a critic of the iPad.
iPad critics, on the other hand, tend to be independent geeks. They prize self-direction, shun conformity, and are interested in video games, computers, electronics, science and the internet. One of the strongest single indicators of being an iPad Critic is a preference for the Linux (a do-it-yourself operating system for super geeks) over Windows or Macintosh. Even Mac users are more likely to criticize the product than Windows users, the PC population being the least geeky of all. If at this point you’re imagining the classic young male geek, your stereotyped imagination is right. iPad Critics do tend to be young men. To add even more color: they tend to have no children and little interest in family.
Why are selfish elites adopting the iPad and independent geeks ridiculing it? We only have data on the who, not the why, but I’ll offer some possible explanations, starting with the geeks.
It Takes a Specific Type of Geek to Hate on the iPad
It may seem odd that geeks are so critical of the iPad. Aren’t geeks the de facto early adopters of all new technology products? Well, it’s complicated. As you can see from the chart above, our independent geeks are in fact more likely than average to be iPad Owners. But why are they even more disproportionately critical? I think it becomes more clear when you zero in on the exact type of geek we’re talking about, since different types of geek like and identify with different kinds of technology. Social Foursquare power users and solo Linux junkies, for instance, may both call themselves geeks but beyond that they won’t have very much in common. MyType’s data indicate that the geeks critical of the iPad are more of the Linux junkie variety: independent, hardcore technology lovers. Think of them as the original, “pure” technology geeks, before geekery gained its mainstream appeal and “social media” entered the lexicon. These guys (and some gals) are known for their strong desire to be in control of their gadgets, compelling them to learn code and tinker with hardware. They’re impressed by technology breakthroughs and advances in speed, storage, and other quantitative qualities. They love to be on the edge of technology, experiencing these advances firsthand.
Now consider the iPad from this hardcore geek perspective. Tablet computers have been around for many years. Touchscreen technology is not new. I’ll let Darren Murph’s assessment on Engadget tell the rest:
I can’t begin to explain how disappointing this device is in the sense of being a usable computer. There’s a 1GHz CPU in there that can’t even be used for multitasking. There’s no camera for video chatting. There’s no way to watch a Flash video and chat within an IRC client at the same time. There’s not even a way to connect a USB device to this without paying Apple extra for an adapter. The iPad is remarkably limited in scope and functionality, and for no good reason. A netbook can run circles around this in terms of actually getting work done, and if I want to enjoy multimedia, I’ll carry around something that can fit in my pocket. As I mentioned, you’ll say I’m just missing the point, but this thing does absolutely nothing for me in its current iteration.
When you think about it this way, the tablet seems like little more than an oversized iPhone. So when it’s heralded as a breakthrough by the media and craved by consumers everywhere, our independent geeks are predictably incredulous. Given the iPad’s promising march towards mainstream adoption, their independent personalities make criticizing the device an almost instinctive reaction.
Criticism of Apple has become an almost instinctive reaction for this group as well. The company has a growing reputation for intentionally limiting user choice. It chooses which apps it will allow users to have access to. To even join club you must buy an Apple device, which offers few customization options. It’s a completely closed platform. This grates independent geeks the wrong way. They need maximum control over their gadgets.
Bashing the iPad is, in a way, an identity statement for independent geeks. As a mainstream, closed-platform device whose major claim to fame is ease of use and sex appeal, the iPad is everything that they are not.
The Power Tool for Selfish Elites
What do selfish elites see in the iPad that others don’t? Perhaps nothing. Five hundred dollars is a lot to spend on an untested product, maybe it’s just a matter of affordability. The data, however, show that people who have all the traits of the selfish elite except wealth are much more likely than the average non-wealthy person to wish they can afford an iPad. Also, the upper class as a whole is more likely to be undecided about the iPad or simply not want it. It’s only when we narrow in on multiple elite traits, including sophistication, achievement, education and wealth, that we see a strong likelihood of being an iPad Owner.
So “elite” is in this case not simply a synonym for “rich”, but more specifically refers to a constellation of characteristics that defines a leadership class, including intellectuals, political influencers, business executives, and so on (as well as young, rising members of this class). These high performance professionals tend to be screen-bound workaholics. It’s no wonder, then, that they flock to a device that makes it incredibly convenient to bring screen work with you, even to traditionally screen-less places like the plane, the bed and the bathroom. A Sybase study found that the number one reason consumers would use the iPad is for working on the go.
And the selfishness? It is plausible to me that the selfish are more likely than non-selfish elites to jump on the opportunity to take work and the web deeper into their lives. The unselfish are less likely to be single-mindedly ambitious and more likely to be attuned to the needs of their families and other private, offline pursuits. Also keep in mind that all of these personality correlations are independent. Perhaps simply the willingness to shell out hundreds of dollars for an unproven personal device correlates with selfishness, regardless of whether we’re talking about elites or average people.
The characteristics of a product’s early adopters define its image, or at least make a strong statement about how the product is perceived. The results of MyType’s iPad Opinion profile suggest that the tablet computer is seen more as a power tool for elites than as the newest gadget for technology geeks.
A Handful of Other Interesting Results
Our iPad Opinion Profile is full of charts focused on specific personality traits, demographics, and offbeat measures like “biggest sin”. Here’s a sample with bonus off-the-cuff commentary.
The iPad Sin
We asked survey respondents to identify which of the Seven Sins they’re most susceptible to. iPad Owners are guilty of the two sins of indulgence: lust and gluttony. Is the iPad itself an indulgence? This fits with the Owner’s “selfish elite” profile.
Religious People are “In the Know” on the iPad
While we’re in religious territory, here’s a surprising finding: of all levels of religiosity, from devoutly religious to non-religious, devoutly religious people are most likely to know what the iPad is. Do people talk about the new tablet at church? What explains this?
Ethnic Minorities are also “In the Know”
Koreans and Chinese in the US are over 8 times and 5 times more likely, respectively, to know what the iPad is and US residents of both Middle Eastern and African descent are more than twice as likely.
Parents Love the iPad
Parents are much more likely to be iPad Owners than non-parents. Parents are also more likely to not even know what the iPad is. Maybe this is a good advertising opportunity for Apple.
If you want more, check out the full report.
Comments on Methodology
Bottom Line MyType’s data, which can be seen in the full report, was collected and normalized with reasonable rigor. Any interpretation of the data, however, is clearly subjective. MyType made an honest effort to tease out the main themes of the data, but feel free to come to your own conclusions.
Data Collection We inserted the iPad question into our psychology quizzes, so respondents were not self-selecting based on their desire to answer a question about the iPad. We use a number of methodologies to eliminate bad respondents, described in the full report.
Data Measures For demographics we used pretty standard questions, many modeled after the census. For psychological traits we used Colin DeYoung’s Big Five Aspect Scales and Schalom Schwartz’s Values Survey, both well-respected instruments in academic psychology.
Sample Normalization We normalized our data to reflect the age, gender, and personality distribution of the US (for people ages 13-49, we did not have enough data for people 50 and over). Our respondents were naturally well distributed across geographic regions, income brackets, and other important demographic measures.
Confidence Virtually all of our hundreds of correlations were significant at p < .05, and a vast majority were significant at p < .01.
Selfish Elite and Independent Geek Population Segments These segments were created by selecting only people who matched multiple profile characteristics. Selfish elites, for instance, had to be unkind and/or unaltruistic, have a household income of $100k or more, have a college degree, score high on power and/or achievement seeking, score high on sophistication, etc. Similar multi-dimensional profiling was done for independent geeks.
More detail on MyType’s methodology can be found at the bottom of the full report.
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Well, yeah, to me in most cases iPad(or Apple) lovers don’t really care about what the thing can do, they just want to have the newest toy because it provides some feeling of “coolness”. To me the thing is just pointless and I certainly can live without it.
And what color is the sky in your world?
Your arrogance is appalling that you can decide the feelings of millions of people whom you have never met.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by ToddHuffman and M Hildebrandt, crunch1974. crunch1974 said: iPad Personality Clash: Elites vs. Geeks http://retwt.me/1NSIA [...]
I probably fall in the “independent geek” category more than “selfish elite”. I don’t need one as I don’t see what it offers me for the price it’s worth. I can see how other people like my father could use it, showing some of his photography work to potential clients laying it on a flat table rather than putting a laptop at an awkward angle.
The only people I’ve seen in person who owned one were nicely dressed and looked accomplished. Maybe owners truly are selfish elites
I love to see the data that confirms my experience of early purchasers of the iPad – wealthy self-described elites. But I know some geeks who are also happy iPad owners, and I wonder if for them it is less about signaling and more about some specific valuable functionality that it provides to this group. It would be interesting to see a follow-on question to the subset of geeks who are iPad enthusiasts about what aspect of the product most enticed them.
I’m proud to be an independent, hardcore technology lover. Wait…I’m less likely to have kids? I’m white and I still knew about the iPad? Just messing… this is a pretty awesome report you guys put together. I dig MyType and will happily answer away at questions if they mean more statistical goodness in reports like this. Cheers!
I wonder if the profile of the iPad buyer will change much if the product proves useful and reliable. I say that because I find it unintuitive that the independent geeks aren’t the ones purchasing en masse. That the selfish elites are buying is understandable as it is a status buy for them…..
Who will Apple market to now that it is #1?
“Bashing the iPad is, in a way, an identity statement for independent geeks. As a mainstream, closed-platform device whose major claim to fame is ease of use and sex appeal, the iPad is everything that they are not.”
This must be a tempting claim, but it’s mostly wrong. As a geek, I have nothing against mainstream-ness, ease of use, or sex appeal. I think it’s great that someone’s making a device like that. It’s the closed platform that drives me up the wall. I’m not going to pay $500+ for Apple to tell me what software I can and can’t put on my iPad. And I’m not interested in paying $99/year for an SDK so I can write software for it.
I assume you apply the same criteria in criticizing/condeming your console gaming system? The closed system approach is a feature to most people because it removes many of the headaches that have plagued open systems like desktop computers for years. Its absolutely a trade off and for people who want to tinker they aren’t going to find what they want, but I think the level of criticism from the independent geek quadrant is a bit exaggerated on that particular point.
Licensing software development is fine. Getting paid for the SDK Tools you created makes sense. However, Apple could simply certify some apps without stopping other apps being developed altogether. Give people a warning if they install an app that isn’t certified!
And limiting where you can buy your music, movies and e-books from is despicable. It’s apples whole “Use it the way we tell you to!” approach which makes me sick.
Their cult-like marketing strategy that makes kids with non-Apple products feel inferior really pisses me off too.
I am a hard-core geek, caucasian, atheist with 1 child and I hate apple.
I love Panasonic products though and they are sexy, expensive and cool as well, but they don’t force their stuff down my throat!
Sony and Apple are two companies I will never buy from!
I think it’s time the EU looked at Apples monopoly, with it’s bundles browser and other software, the way it did with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer!
you are stupid!
panasonic just produces crap! the world you are living in, must suck hard!
Pittlick, are you 12 years old? In the digital camera realm, Panasonic is nearly as well regarded as Canon and Nikon, especially for their micro four thirds offerings. They’re a massive company and make everything from rice cookers and portable shavers to industrial sensors and robotics.
There are a lot of Panasonic products I wouldn’t recommend, and some I would. It’s the same with Sony, Apple, Microsoft, Lenovo, Samsung, Canon, Epson et al.
Grow up.
I think this can be summed up by observing that the iPad has been purchased by early adopters that have the money to do so.
You could make the same analysis for a Windows 7 phone (how many critics would own one) or the Wii when it emerged.
[...] the MyType Blog. It makes a fascinating read, whether or not you agree with the findings. Source: MyType Blog via Wired [...]
Lance Wiggs hit the nail on the head. The conclusions seem fairly biased and ignore other possible cause/effect explanations, probably more simple (i.e., parsimonious) ones. In addition, sampling method is not mentioned, but surely impacts a study like this. Nobody should claim this is good science, because it is not. If you were one of my experimental psych undergraduate students, I’d give this report a C. Nice effort, lots of work, but horribly biased conclusions based on questionable sampling. If this was from one of my graduate student, definitely an F.
FAIL. You, sir, are a cancer on the human race as a whole. The dreadful thought that you are educating the future leaders of our country is terrifying. You’re incredibly obvlivious to the fact that every thing you said was confirmation of the results of the study. I hope you know how many people read your ridiculous comments and laughed hysterically. Elitist = You
Exactly “how many people read [his/her] ridiculous comments and laughed hysterically”? Your naive and ridiculous comment made me laugh. You, sir, FAIL.
He/She is an elitist and a “cancer on society” because he/she identified potential flaws in the conclusions of the study? Based on your rather “interesting” logic and personal (probably drunken) attack, I feel sorry for you, because ALL academics do the same thing. It is called the peer review process, and it is pretty damn necessary, or else people start reading “scientific research” that claims that we are capable of cold fusion, or that all iPad owners are elitists, and iPad haters are geeks.
“Criticism of Apple has become an almost instinctive reaction for this group as well. The company has a growing reputation for intentionally limiting user choice. It chooses which apps it will allow users to have access to. To even join club you must buy an Apple device, which offers few customization options. It’s a completely closed platform. This grates independent geeks the wrong way. They need maximum control over their gadgets.”
This is at least a lie by omission. What you describe here is Apple’s stance for the iPhone/iPad.
Apple’s other flagship product, Mac OS X, the operating system inside every Mac computer, is built upon the venerable -and terribly geeky- UNIX… And its core is open-source ( http://opensource.apple.com/ ). That alone makes Apple computers a very interesting choice for hackers and geeks in general. They also created and open-sourced LLVM, Clang, the Webkit web engine (originally forked from KHTML, rewritten, now used by both Safari and Google Chrome), OpenCL, GrandCentral/libdispatch (quickly ported to FreeBSD), CUPS…
“Apple” as a company has a weird relationship towards openness. Just be cautious to precise that the control-freak approach is only used in their mobile devices line.
(Full disclosure: I am an “independent geek”, I own a Mac, but have no intention to get an iPad.
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No surprise to me that the power- and wealth-oriented elite iPad owners also correlate with being religious. People who are after power tend to believe in structure and hierarchy, order, etc. Religions order and make sense of our larger, chaotic world. There’s also a long-standing tradition in the US (and elsewhere) of connecting economic well being to divine favor.
But more so, agree with Dr. F: in the comments that this is a pretty sh* study, as far as the social sciences go.
Aren’t you just coming to the conclusion everyone who DOESN’T own an iPad wants to hear–that all those iPad flashing, power hungry Wall Street types are tight-fisted jerks? Isn’t that what us innately jealous homo sapiens tell ourselves to get by?
Attack the conclusions all you want, I never claimed that my interpretation of the data was scientific. How would you scientifically interpret the data anyway? You’d have to do many follow up studies to eliminate all possibilities until you teased out the “right” interpretation. Two issues with this: 1) we’re not going to spend the next year over analyzing this one set of data. It’s data. Interpret it how you want. 2) I don’t think there is any one right interpretation. There are, as with all things, a blend of reasons that data is what it is. I tried to tease out the main theme I saw. If you disagree, that’s fine.
Attacking the data though is a different story: we collected a massive amount of data and normalized it. The results are statistically significant. Facebook is a biased sample, for sure, but all samples are biased. How many A+ graduate students base their studies on a pool of students at their college? Which sample set is more biased? Facebook is one of the least biased populations out there, the only obvious biases are the slant towards youth and having to be online, both of which I’m willing to accept. Being online is particularly fine since if you’re not online you’re not really in the iPad debate anyway.
As I mentioned in the post, our results are in line with two other studies. Sure some of the numbers will be a few percentage points off, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to say that there are major errors in our data. If you think so, please point to a specific result and explain why.
The data is corrupted by the simple fact that people had to volunteer to answer a questionnaire through Facebook. Did you correlate Facebook usage with iPad ownership? Did you consider that only a specific profile will be willing to spend time answering your questions through Facebook? I don’t think so…
How would that profile be characterized? Is a specific age or gender more likely to be willing to spend the time? Yes, which is why we normalized for that. How about a specific personality? Yes again, we normalized for that. We compared other major demographics and our sample reasonably matched the US population. Anyway, when we calculated our numbers we compared one bracket (e.g. PhDs) to another bracket in the same category (people with high school degrees only). Regardless of whether or not we have many more PhDs than we should, the comparison between those groups is valid. That is, assuming no second order effects like selfish PhDs disproprotionately using MyType whereas unselfish high school grads are disproproportionate users. Even then, though, like I said we normalized according to age, gender and personality.
I think a C is generous, its ok to use biased data (the fact is that is what this blogger is doing) but you need to acknowledge the fact clearly, or you risk giving an false impression of the statistical validity of your sample.
The data, as presented, is statistically inappropriate.
John: The post says right up front that we surveyed our users on Facebook.
What a BS conclusion. Totally wasted my time reading this. See ya forever.
your sample size of actual owners is 1% of 20000, or 200.
All of those 200 are mytype and facebook users who chose to participate in your poll.
Pop Quiz: what level of confidence do you have that the conclusions you have drawn apply as you have used them, to all iPad owners?
if you want your post to be more than a puff piece, the answer to that should be taken rather more seriously and displayed a little more prominently.
John Hall: You can break it down by each dimension we measured. For each personality trait we consider three levels: low, average and high. If you place 200 people in one of three buckets and a one of those buckets is disproportionately full or empty, the result is pretty significant. For other things like wealth, education, etc. there are no more than a handful of “buckets”.
You have to go through odd contortions to claim substantial bias in our sample, despite the normalization. Is it reasonable to worry that perhaps selfish iPad owners are much more likely to take the poll than non-selfish iPad owners while selfishness for non-iPad owners does not correlate or shows an inverse relationship with willingness to take the poll? I think not. Replace selfishness with every other data point and the answer is the same.
Do I think that all iPad owners, or even most of them, are selfish elites? No, of course not, it says so right in prominently placed bar graph.
The headline is meant to intrigue. I’m not going to write an academic journal headline. By itself, the headline is not entirely correct. Taken as a whole, however, the post is reasonable and justified. You can poke technical holes in it, like how I don’t state confidence intervals, but the data and the results are still valid. If I did take the time to state confidence intervals, they’d be satisfactory.
Am I going to just throw away the results because they are based on users of an application on Facebook? Of course not. Do you expect academic researchers to do the same when their samples are taken from their class or school? They state their samples upfront, and so do I.
“the result is pretty significant.”
it is? how significant, exactly?
How do you know that the data and results are valid?
What makes you so sure that the confidence intervals would be satisfactory?
Im not going to reply to the rest of your post, clearly you intended to write something without any scientific validity, and are comfortable having done so.
What I canot understand, is why you bothered to go through the motions of actually polling people?
Like I said, I would consider a C to be somewhat generous, you have displayed no understanding of the rigor required to produce useful statistical information.
I agree with John Hall – the conclusions are amusing, but lack the rigor required to be anything other than editorial. The graphs and polling data seem silly if you’re just going to apply some fuzzy logic and slap a sensational headline at the top to drive some traffic here. In your defense I guess it worked.
Here’s what I glean from the data:
1) Apple critics are largely young, tech savvy boys who consider themselves anti-establishment. They hate any large corporation, Apple just happens to be the one in this poll and the one making all the headlines recently.
2) iPad buyers have moderate to large disposable incomes.
The rest is sensationlist soothsaying.
+1 — parsimony wins.
We calculated significance, most results were significant at p < .01, and just about everything was significant at p < .05 (the only things that weren’t were odd outliers like native american iPad owners). I decided that getting into statistical significance, methodology, etc. would bore most readers. Perhaps I was wrong: not that it would bore most readers, which is true, but that I should pay attention to convincing the more discerning readers, since they are the ones that are more worth convincing.
One thing is for sure, based on all the feedback about bias, statistical significance, etc. I will certainly beef up the methodology section on the next report. Something tells me, though, that even then I’ll get the same split-second critical comments. Seems to me that sniffing out the possibility of bias is something that more analytical types find fun to do, or perhaps it’s just signaling for intelligence (not saying you in particular, just that this type of reaction is vary common for any sort of survey or statistical report). Or it’s just in the scientists/mathematicians/analysts blood to criticize first, and only accept gradually once they or someone else successfully addresses their critiques. So my post didn’t pass muster with you. I’m sure if I walked you through our data and analyses you would be much more satisfied, but I doubt either of us have the time for that. I need to get to bed
The basic point still stands: the data is worth paying attention to. I’m not saying you won’t find issues under the microscope, or that you can draw black and white conclusions from it, but the overall result has enough meaning to be worth writing about and reading.
Thanks for your feedback. Like I said, I’ll beef up the methodology section in the next report. If you want, I’ll even run it by you before I post about it just to see what you think.
Technically, significance should be tested at a level to reject a null hypothesis, not “some at this level, some at that” and the lower means “more significant.” In other words, a significance test is just that, reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis. There is no “more significance” based on a lower calculated p-value.
In general (without getting too far into this discussion), a planned test for social sciences a p-value of .05 is generally accepted. For an unplanned test, .01 is OK, but .001 is even better. That said, it looks like a lot of unplanned test took place. Although this kind of data mining is not good, except for exploratory studies (which this may be), the significance level should be adjusted for each significance test performed. This controls experimentwise / familytwise error rates. In general, the more test you run, the higher the probability of falsely rejecting the null hypothesis. That is, if I run 10 tests with p=.05, there is a 10x probability that I’m falsely rejecting the null. So I’m actually testing at p=.5.
There are several ways to control experimentwise error rates (e.g., Bonferroni adjustments). For a simple blog post, just dividing the planned p-level by the number of test would probably be satisfactory (e.g., 10 paired comparisons at p=.05 would be p=.005 for each test). Regardless, exploratory studies with a p-value even reported are kind of odd creatures in the first place, given that nobody really had a null hypothesis to test going into the study.
Arf: We very rigorously measure personality traits and values, as rigorously as any academic would. We use the same questions and model contemporary psychologists use in their research.
” I have a degree from Harvard in Computer Science, I took my fair share of math and statistics courses.”
Statistics is a fantastically easy tool to misuse, it is quite genuinely possible to ‘prove’ anything you like, depending on how you display and interpret the scope and context of the data.
The only thing that separates the competent from the incompetent is how clearly the methods, bias and any other limitations of the data are communicated.
Someone with a good understanding of, and respect for, statistics *always* prefaces their communication with a clear and honest explanation of the context in which the data can be considered to be useful.
Any set of data that does not communicate that information clearly has been reported by either charlatans or incompetents and should not be taken seriously.
AND that concludes my rant for the day. Thank you Tim, for your patient explanations and your generally good humour.
Thanks also for an entertaining blog post.
Clearly the 200 MyType and FaceBook users who chose to respond to your personality quiz and who own an iPad are selfish elites!
To trump, two words: Ubuntu, Inspirion.
[...] iPad Personality Clash: Elites Vs. Geeks throws up some very interesting data points. This entry was posted in Business, My Very Keen Observations. Bookmark the permalink. ← The new rallying point… [...]
[...] [2010-07-27 17:25:18] DotNetWill Self Elites buy iPads, describes most hardcore Mac Fanboys I know http://mytype.com/blog/?p=109 [2010-07-27 17:25:04] MrSmithMachine @jedimastersa IE is a chisel and stone tablet, Firefox is pen [...]
Anyone can say they have a degree in a body of text. It only falsely boosts yourself into convincing others you are credible. Everyone should know this. Two see both of you Claiming Harvard and Professor adds nothing to the debate between either of you.
John Hall, you are not a professor to me. You are simply flaming like any other flamer on any other forum/blog/chat. You need to prove this data is incorrect with conflicted data that proves otherwise. I can draw my own conclusion that you are an iPad owner who fit much of the profiling that Tim reported. You in your own defense to protect your pride lashed out at better than average Internet statistics.
Anyone who has taken statistics knows that data can be interpreted incorrectly, but you have the data right in your face. With a pool of 20,000 and 200 iPad users, this data is good enough for Internet reading.
iPad owners aren’t proud though… it was the second lowest ranking sin in the statistics. In fact, all of the lower ranking traits for iPad owners were entirely ignored in the blog post in favour of the “selfish” stamp. You might turn it on its head and say that most people who criticise the iPad never have children. This is obviously false but seems to be supported by the statistics.
I am not in a position to comment on the validity of the statistics collected, but I do share the opinion that the write-up is somewhat biased.
[...] bullshit that far exceeds even Andrew Breitbart’s high standard. For example, consider this item by some psychological profiling firm, which shows that iPad haters are most likely to be [...]
This is ridiculously biased. It is a purely psychographic correlation: no attempt has been made to study actual economic demographics. A homeless man “interested in business and finance” would still qualify as a “selfish elite” under this methodology. Furthermore, I would assume that research via Facebook is biased. This data is a useful start, but not sufficient for drawing the conclusions you’ve proposed.
Anonymusing: A homeless man would not qualify as “selfish elite”. We added people to the selfish elite pool if they made a minimum number of selfish elite qualities: one selfish quality, above average income, at least a college education, value power and/or achievement, etc.
“They’re also selfish, scoring low on measures of kindness and altruism.”
So should that be kindness _or_ altruism or whatever other selfish qualities have been assessed? These statistics should be shared. They are fundamental to 50% of your branding of an iPad owner or potential owner.
I never understood why most Apple fans never accept any criticism to the company. It like a religious discussion. I wonder if they feel like their “status” is being attacked. Whether this study interpretation is accurate or no, the data is there, you can can draw any conclusion out of that, but data will remain the same.
Tim,
It can’t come as a surprise that so many have stepped forward to question the methodology here. You’ve intentionally played into a common stereotype that litters angry comment sections across the internet: Apple users are non-discerning elitists who care more for vanity and status than function. It’s a tired argument that obscures whatever interesting conclusions could have been gleaned from these data.
One could use the same data to assert that iPad critics are “uneducated and aggressive” where iPad owners are “educated and creative”. Such a comparison would be equally agitating and useless.
“The headline is meant to intrigue.”
When you use inflammatory language like “selfish elites”, that’s a blatant attack on iPad users. You can’t justify it by calling it “intrigue”; that’s just weasel language. And if you make an attack like this, you’d better have more to back it up than a ridiculous, unscientific interpretation of already questionable data.
Yes, the data is interesting, but this article is sleazy. Tim, you should be ashamed.
[...] study found that “bashing the iPad is, in a way, an identity statement for independent geeks,” wrote [...]
Pretty interesting post – raises some interesting points for debate. I just stumbled upon your blog this morning and wanted to say that I have really liked browsing some of the posts. Anyways, I’m subscribed to your feed and I hope to read more very soon!
I am 68 and use a iPad for 90% of what I used my HP2140 for prior to getting the iPad. My uses are for spreadsheets, word documents, Internet communications and email. I use Documents To Go as an application to view, edit or construct my Office. Related documents on the iPad. I use ‘Dropbox’ as an online storage for all of my excel, word, PDF or jpg files. Until these two features recently became available for the IPad I saw limited use for me. With these two applications the iPad has become a very portable and useable tool for me. I also have a Droid phone that is rooted so connecting to my phone by my iPad for a removte hotspot makes for a great alternative wo wifi when not available.
[...] iPad Personality Clash: Elites vs. Geeks. Tech apple, elite, geeks, ipad Catching up on shows » [...]
It would be even more amusing to have all respondents (commenters) provide a disclaimer as to whether they are owners of iPads or not.
For what it’s worth (in a statistically irrelevant manner), I purchased an iPad and I totally agree with the archetype.
[...] – direct your wrath at consumer research firm MyType who arrived at this conclusion after a month-long study of their 20,000 users. From the [...]
As a “devoutly religious” person, here’s my guess as to why we are more in the know. Christians believe that they are to tell the whole world about their faith. In order to do that, you need to understand the world you’re communicating with. So we’re constantly looking at latest trends in our societies thinking and technology, in order to work out how we may engage better with society. So when a new craze comes along, eg, the iPad, something triggers in my mind that says “I should research that a bit to know what it is”, and then I do research it.
Anyway, like one friend tweeted, “Now, *that’s* how you troll Apple fanbois”.
[...] iPad Personality Clash: Elites vs. Geeks – “The iPad is one of the more controversial mainstream technology products in recent memory. Some love it, others think it’s pointless. Naturally, the debaters believe that their opinions are about the product. I actually think it’s more about them and their personal differences. Recent MyType survey data backs me up, indicating that behind the controversy is a personality clash between selfish elites and independent geeks…” [...]
[...] Consumer research firm MyType conducted a study, in which opinions of 20,000 people on Facebook were analyzed between March and May. The firm’s conclusion was that iPad owners tend to be wealthy, sophisticated, highly educated and disproportionately interested in business and finance, while they scored terribly in the areas of altruism and kindness. In other words, ‘selfish elites.’ This surprises no-one. Well… except that the iPad owners are highly educated – I would expect educated people to be better with their money and not fall into Apple’s hype trap. [...]
[...] have been torturing yourself about this for some time. So, please say thank you to a company called MyType that took it upon itself to profile iPad [...]
Tests showed that MyType was most likely to draw conclusions that would maximize for click-thrus and whatever brought name recognition and free advertising to its own brand.
[...] auf Wired. Der Artikel ist inhaltlich ebenso inhaltsleer, nur länger. Von dort geht es dann auf My Type Blog den Urheber der “Studie”. Da wird wird es dann interessant, denn MyType ist kein [...]
[...] la prendereste se vi dicessimo che, secondo l’ultima ricerca di mercato ad opera di MyType, i profili degli acquirenti medi dell’iPad ricadono in quella che è stata [...]
[...] have been torturing yourself about this for some time. So, please say thank you to a company called MyType that took it upon itself to profile iPad [...]
I’m not so sure that many people would take a survey comparing selfish elites to independent geeks too seriously. I thought it humorous and done in good fun, but not a standard for actual data . . . assuming that’s what all the fuss is about. Anyhoo, I hope you keep posting here I’ll be checking in from time to time.
[...] have been torturing yourself about this for some time. So, please say thank you to a company called MyType that took it upon itself to profile iPad [...]
[...] have been torturing yourself about this for some time. So, please say thank you to a company called MyType that took it upon itself to profile iPad [...]
such generalizations. it’s media like you that make this world a sadder place.Using Facebook as a study and generalizing from that …. your a sad company spreading non-sense based rubbish
[...] have been torturing yourself about this for some time. So, please say thank you to a company called MyType that took it upon itself to profile iPad [...]
[...] elites,” and the ones that criticize them are just “independent geeks” – according to a recent study by research firm [...]
[...] it might not be a very scientific study, a psychological profile of iPad owners says they’re “selfish elites,” while iPad critics are given the [...]
[...] it might not be a very scientific study, a psychological profile of iPad owners says they’re “selfish elites,” while iPad critics are given the [...]
[...] Detailinformationen zu der Studie findet Ihr an dieser Stelle [...]
[...] yourself about this for a small time. So, greatfully contend appreciate we to a association called MyType which took it upon itself to form iPad [...]
Your “race” chart is severely misleading, as you’ve chosen to break out Asian ethnicities (Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese and Other Asian) as separate “races”, and then compare those to aggregates such as Hispanic, Black/African American, and White/Caucasian. You can’t mix metaphors—either examine “race” (admittedly a difficult construct) or ethnicity.
Race is messy, and there are too many ethnicities. We modeled our options after the US Census. http://www.prb.org/Articles/2009/questionnaire.aspx
Two more things:
1) It’s not “severely misleading”. Anyone looking at the chart can see that we’re comparing the amorphous group of “white” people to those who specifically identify as Japanese, etc. You could say it’s the wrong comparison to make, but what the comparison is is very clear.
2) Thanks for looking at the actual report!
Selfish elite? How elitist.
[...] el retrato robot que sobre los propietarios de la todopoderosa tableta de Apple realiza el blog MyType no deja a éstos en muy buen [...]
I have to say you quote, “As a mainstream, closed-platform device whose major claim to fame is ease of use and sex appeal, the iPad is everything that they are not.” You are kind of poking fun at yourself, by having a blog you are an independent geek. I think this is a harsh critism and it invalidates the psuedo science you are trying to spin.
I am an independent geek myself and I do not own an iPad. The reason I do not own one is because I do not feel the need, even as an on-call consultant, to constantly be in touch with work. You should have really focused on whether or not iPad owners were work-aholics. To me it sounds like your so called elites have many of calling signs of work-aholics. They have extra money because the probably work 60 to 70 hours a week. Independent geeks are typically smarter and lazier only working 40 to 50 hours a week and using their free time to do something that you study also doesn’t account for which is how these subjects have fun. I garuntee the iPad is a replacement for a GF, lack of sex, lack of a hobby, or trying ignore their families.
If you are going to psycho-social surveys you should actually have a scientific theory beforehand otherwise you are just another 4th-year psych student doing a thesis.
The “iPad is everything that they are not” line is a good one. Is it a scientific statement? Of course not. It’s editorial. I’m trying to paint an image. Attacking it because it does not hold across the board for every single individual is a cheap shot. I suppose you prefer that I painstakingly list 100 full interviews with iPad critics and let you sort through the mess.
I do make the workaholic point in my post, did you read it? “These high performance professionals tend to be screen-bound workaholics. It’s no wonder, then, that they flock to a device that makes it incredibly convenient to bring screen work with you, even to traditionally screen-less places like the plane, the bed and the bathroom. A Sybase study found that the number one reason consumers would use the iPad is for working on the go.”
I appreciate your point about not wanting to be constantly in touch with work. I feel the exact same way. Not only do I not own an iPad, I don’t even own a smart phone. I hang out with geeks (as well as elites, and other types of people too) but don’t really consider myself one. A nerd, maybe. Geek, not really.
One big problem I have with all of this is equating the idea of a computer user with an iPad user/critic. While the iPad has many computer-like qualities, there is enough that is different about it to suggest that it isn’t relevant to ask computer users about it as it relates to their computer technologies opinions.
A similar situation might occur if you asked bicycle riders about motorcycles. Sure, they are both ridden the same way, have 2 wheels, they ride on the same road, and at times they go the same speed, but the similarity (and more importantly, usage patterns) ends there. People use bicycles and motorcycles differently, despite some clear resemblances.
Sure, there is some of the same vocabulary, (apps, os, screen, video, etc.) but the basic way that people use an iPad (cross-legged, lounging, reading books, magazines, watching videos, playing games) is distinctly different from a lot of the activities on a laptop computer (blogging, writing prose or code, creating graphics, communicating via email, IM, twitter, etc.). Yes, the iPad can do nearly all of what the laptop can do (just as bicycle can go pretty fast and you can park a motorcycle in nearly the same space), but that does not make them equivalent devices, and does not necessarily say that you should judge either one by the same criteria. To suggest that the iPad is just another touchscreen-based computer, and being frustrated that you can’t use it for web-conferencing or attaching a USB device is utterly missing the point. I don’t complain that my bicycle can’t pass a car on the freeway, nor do I complain that a motorcycle (if I had one) can’t operate silently and I can’t easily attach it to the front of the bus. They’re different devices!
As for characterizing a group of people based on their computer habits and activities and then what they feel about the iPad is also missing the point. You might as well ask Real Estate Brokers, Nudists, or Soccer Moms what they think about the iPad. These cross-correlations are only a part of the story. I suspect the divide is more about people who are comfortable with spending the money/time to begin digital consumption of media that isn’t necessarily work related before it becomes cheap enough to be a no-brainer. Some day, it won’t be just iPads, but all sorts of tablet and other form-factor devices, but sooner or later, the economics of media consumption will favour bits over dead trees.
The iPad can comfortably fit on the breakfast table (try and say the same about a laptop and you’ll get some rolled eyes). As I’ve blogged, the iPad is the first ‘Loungetop’ — it has a different user model.
It may be that Linux enthusiasts, who value user control over os stability, polish and convenience, are not comfortable with the App Store being the sole source of software, but that’s a pretty trivial observation (and not all that surprising). The fact is, in the end, most technologies move from the hobbyist/enthusiast base to the general public, who don’t really care whether they can hack their device or not. Just ask users of personal computers.
Here’s where this breaks down for me…
You surveyed 20,000 people on Facebook…I’m assuming you didn’t randomly survey people but got random people from Facebook to answer some questions…people who volunteer for online surveys are also likely more inclined to have very strong opinions…likely stronger than your average person you might survey on the street. Next, there are over 3,000,000 iPad owners at this point…so some subset of 20,000 people who are iPad owners hardly make up a good statistic about iPad owners…what it makes is MAYBE a good subset of early adopters…of which I am one…and while I can be as selfish as the next person…I’m also altruistic and donate a fair share of my time and money each year to causes greater than myself…like homelessness.
Here’s one last thing…your numbers prove that the iPad haters are lazy, prideful and greedy…so how does that really add up when it comes to profiling us iPad elites are selfish???
So based on your numbers…the independent elites…are childless, lazy, prideful, greedy, yet morally superior atheist. Good work…you’ve really nailed it. (eye rolling)
As I said before, respondents are users of MyType, whose only desire is to learn about their personality type. We didn’t put up an “iPad poll”, the iPad question was randomly inserted into the personality quiz. We then normalized the respondents based on age, gender, and personality because of course MyType users are a biased sample. Normalizing removes most of the bias.
Of course you don’t need to ask all 3M iPad owners to get good statistics. You know how sampling works, right?
Also, there are of course thousands of counterexamples to the trend I’ve identified. Proposing yourself as a counterexample does not undermine the trend.
Yes I know how sampling works. I guess what this breaks down to for me is the use of “selfish elites” and “independent geeks.” Your own stats here show that these “geeks” are largely childless, prideful, greedy, loner, young, male, atheist.
Now I won’t disparage atheists…since I am one, but I will say that it is interesting that you categorize iPad owners as selfish, when your own graphs show that the geeks are quite selfish in their own right. In fact the picture it paints to me is someone who likes to sit at home and ignore the company of others with the exception of those folks they hang out with on xbox live and have little interest in community outside of their own sheltered geek world. So basically most of the internet trolls I’ve experienced.
Of course one could say that’s not a very fair use of language towards the independent geek…but then again it is about as inflammatory as calling iPad owners selfish elites…when the last time I checked…the word elite use to mean something positive until people started shifting the meaning to imply that being good at anything…was really code for a “liberal.”
I’m sorry…I appreciate you probably put a lot of work into this…but it seems to fit in the FUD category of pitting people against each other and I find it also offensive…to both sides.
However as a side note…I applaud you for getting involved in the comments and participating in the discussion. Most people would avoid it.
Best comment on this post so far. You raise good points, some that I struggled with. When it came down to it, the iPad owners had more selfish traits than the critics, and they showed a stronger correlation with those selfish traits. I only looked at the robust personality data when profiling, not the sins data. The sins data is not very scientific, it’s just based on a single self-labeling question, whereas the personality traits are measured via multiple indirect questions.
You’re right that the picture of the critics is “aloof”. That’s a different shade from selfish though. I used the word “independent” because it seemed to best sum up the detachment, non-conformity, and high self-direction.
The word “elite” is used in the positive sense here, though of course everyone instantly reads it as a bad label. What’s wrong with being wealthy, sophisticated, over-achieving, highly educated, etc? Sounds like what I want to be! Have you read In Defense of Elitism? Good premise, though I don’t agree with all arguments the author presents.
Your survey, I’m sorry to say, doesn’t even meet the bare minimum requirements of unbaised, scientific research. It’s limited to Facebook users? It’s limited to volunteers?
As a 57 year old mother of three who works hard for a living and supports a variety of philanthropic causes, attends church regularly and uses her iPad 10 hours out of each waking day, I can tell you that none of your findings approach reality — at least in my case. And I use Facebook.
Promoting this kind of “research” is, I agree, divisive and misleading. Passing it off as anything approaching credible is almost criminal.
[...] least according to research by Facebook-based psychographic marketing firm MyType. 20,000 people on Facebook took one of MyType’s psychological surveys from mid-March to [...]
Great site!
[...] gente de MyType ha efectuado una encuesta entre 20,000 usuarios y ha encontrado ciertos rasgos de personalidad comunes entre la gente que es poseedora, o quiere poseer, un iPad y la gente que simplemente detesta el [...]
That is very interesting. It provided me a number of ideas and I’ll be writing them on my web site soon. I’m bookmarking your site and I’ll be back. Thanks again!
Good infomation here, thanks.
[...] study found that “bashing the iPad is, in a way, an identity statement for independent geeks,” wrote [...]
[...] egoistisch und unfreundlich? zu diesem ergebnis kommt jedenfalls eine amerikanische studie: iPad Personality Clash: Elites vs. Geeks Updated with comments on methodology below The iPad is one of the more controversial mainstream [...]
I am 24 years old from Toronto and love my ipad. I’m definitely no conformist, but an independent geek. I point myself in my own direction and find apple products are efficient an useful. Having used iPhone since inception, and about to get my 4th gen, the ipad seemed like the perfect device for my mobile work. I am currently In Paris and have every ability I need while travelling: remote desktop, movies, web (sans flash…couldn’t care less), email, backup my camera photos, music, games, oh and ultra portability. A netbook, which I’ve owned, I hated. The ipad seemlessly fulfills my tasks that would feel cramped and painful on a netbook. A good friend of mine recently decided to switch from blackberry to iPhone and instead of a new laptop bought the best ipad. He told me (as an early skeptic) that ipad was silly and he would have to see it before thinking of purchasing. Let it suffice to say he loves his ipad more than I love mine…I found this article interesting, perhaps I am not quite in either category because I tend to do nice things for others as well as enjoy my fanboi products….
What bare nonsense, disguised as science.
First of all the poll was only taken amongst Facebook users, which is the most egotripping segment of the population.
Secondly it was not compared with other deviese. Why not do a survey on what kind of selfish elitists PC users are?
Thirdly the questions are largely irrelevant, and the answers interpreted with a hughe lot more than poetic license.
The only reason this got in the news, is because it is pigge-backing on the label iPad, which ensures a lot of people will click on it.
I had never heard of MyType, and it surely is not my type. Ihope never to hear about such a surpeficial company again.
Look ma! I bashed the iPad (and it’s users)! I’m getting hits and comments like it’s going outta fashion!
:Well done boy!
@All Geeks: Use the alternative to the iPad….oh wait there’s…nothing. Hmmmm….
[...] Wirtschaft als für Musik und Kunst. GA_googleFillSlot('MN-Detail-Style-oben'); In zwei Worten beschreibt MyType diesen Durchschnittskunden als “egoistische Elite”. Der durchschnittliche [...]
[...] info: MyType Blog Via: Wired De afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel is afkomstig uit Apple’s [...]
[...] anything if it gets our name in the press. "iPad owners are selfish elitists"-study. http://mytype.com/blog/?p=109 [2010-07-29 21:46:49] HuntHenning @sofiafontes I’ve always wondered how a cat would response [...]
[...] person by the name of John Hall called them out in their comments section, at which point they started giving broad statements about p values (but again, no specifics, [...]
[...] According to a recent study by research firm MyType, after surveying over 20,000 Facebook users about the iPad to “reveal the personality traits, values, demographics and interests that drive differences in opinion about the new tablet computer, they arrived at the findings presented in the chart at left and more. [...]
Well. Yet another 5 minute study via facebook that had me pigeon-holed into a type of person. Problem is, I don’t see how I can human with the lists I’m on. Now I am an elitist, couch potato who neither eats anything unless it’s made of 90% water and doesn’t swim up the Thames.
Jees. Can’t wait until you guys do a study on people that do studies. Guess that will be taxing and take all of 5 seconds to compile and days to make it look nice with stupid graphs. Get out in the real world and stop using facebook for your data.
I suspect Tim wrote this article to get the ‘rise’ out of people just like he is getting. I don’t have the time to entertain reading all of these responses, but I will say this. I’m retired military. Middle class. I drive a 2002 Wrangler. I live in a modest 3 bed 2 bath home, which i am still paying for. I have no revolving debt as I worked hard to get rid of debt before I retired. My only toys are a 67 camaro that I paid 16k for, and a wave-runner. I own a laptop, and a desktop, both running windows. I have an xbox 360, and a big screen tv. I donate money, time, and items to local charities, and this week, in my job, I haven’t done anything but surf the web (that’s how I found this), so I’m not over-achieving. I do not have a college degree, nor does my wife. We both have attended some classes, but have less than an associates in credits. I’m 43, she’s 37. I wear blue-jeans and white tennis shoes, not suits and dress shoes. I own one ipad, and love it. Travelled across country with it, and had 3G connectivity almost the entire time. Oh, and I spilt my grey poupon on it. Whatever. Tim, you and anyone who think he’s spot on are full of crap… ya friggin bafoon!
Again, we published trends in the data. All trends have counterexamples, like you. If you look at our chart, you’ll see that only 18% of iPad Owners are “selfish elites”, i.e. the majority of owners are not. But, from a trend analysis perspective, iPad owners are much more selfish and elite than the general population.
Good site!
Retired marketing guy here who owns an iPad. Note that the sample was self-selected from people with Facebook accounts … by no means representative of the universe of internet users. Doesn’t matter how sophisticated you think your research methods may be. Garbage in, garbage out.
Dan: When does market research ever involve forced respondents? Even if you random phone dial, you still have those who choose to respond and those who don’t. Is all research garbage?
The methods are very important for all market research, only then do you know if the study did a reasonable job of eliminating self-selection bias, which all raw samples suffer from.
[...] stumbled upon this “survey analysis” on an Apple related list called “iPad Opinion Profile – iPad Personality Clash: [...]
[...] [...]
I think this was an interesting study, but I do not understand what “sophisticated” means in this context, and I would like to. A definition or a sample of the questions used to determine the trait would be most welcome. (I’d take the test myself, but it seems Facebook membership is required.)
Sophistication is a measured on a spectrum, based on how strongly you agree with the statements like the following:
I am quick to understand things
I believe in the importance of art
I see beauty in things that others might not notice
I formulate ideas clearly
I need a creative outlet
and disagree with statements like the following:
I have difficulty understanding abstract ideas
I learn things slowly
I do not like poetry
Every respondent answers 8 such statements (some positive, some negative) total. These are all IPIP questions selected by the psychologist Colin DeYoung as the best measures of these traits. If you look at his work, you’ll noticed we renamed some of the traits to make them easier to understand out of context.
Another way to understand our sophistication measure is recognizing that it is a combination of two more specific personality traits: intellectualism and imagination/culture.
As an iPad user I’m a bit annoyed at how pompous the creators of this survey are being about their findings. Not to mention the elite arrogance of those in here bashing away at iPad users as if this survey is somehow definitive. As someone else pointed out only 1% of the respondents actually owned an iPad. That’s 200 out of 20,000. 200!!!! That’s it? iPad sales are huge… Last figure I heard was 3.3 million!!! That 200 ( just facebook users btw) is only .006% of the total iPad user base. What about the other 99.994% of us that you didn’t survey? And since not everyone uses facebook, and many that do only use it for nothing more than seeing photos and messages and could care less about surveys – I think we can pretty come to the conclusion that this survey is nothing more than an attempt to bash Apple products and those who use them. I am not wealthy and neither are those that I know that have iPads out here in the real world, not just the 200 on facebook.
Truth is the only way to get a realistic result of just exactly who iPad users are would be to have Apple send out a survey since they have the ability to do so and would not be just the the type of user that uses facebook… which is also a different type of person. It could easily be the same survey or similar to it. But if the questions were as slanted and vague as I heard they were then perhaps some changes would be needed.
And if this survey were accurate I’d be driving to work at a big corporate office in a BMW, rather than to Lowes in my Kia. Thanks MyType for getting it totally wrong.
Excellent webpage! I dont believe Ive witnessed all of the angles of this issue the way in which youve pointed them out. Youre a true star, a rock star guy. Youve got much to say and know a lot about the subject which i think you ought to just teach a class about it..
.HaHa!
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[...] MyType Blog » Blog Archive » iPad Personality Clash: Elites vs. Geeks (tags: ipad consumers research) [...]
[...] sitio de Internet MyType realizó una encuesta en donde mostraron que los dueños de un iPad son personas seis veces más [...]
[...] guter Letzt kommt dann auch noch ein wilder Marktforschungstrupp (das ganze Gemetzel findet sich hier) daher, welcher uns erklärt, dass der iPad-Nutzer an und für sich ein egoistischer Unmensch ist. [...]
Wow, this thread is full of personal attacks.
LOL… and I just noticed that it is moderated! Way to go moderator!
Haha, thanks. We only filter out spam. We’re not going to censor people.
Well, the first flaw in your “research” is that it is completely dependent on Facebook’s user base (which in itself represents a unique human trait). Second, considering just how many iPads Apple has sold, the 20k person sample size is a raindrop in the ocean ratio. In other words, useless. Third, its clear that your “company” went into this with an agenda. Why? Who knows. Apple bashing is in vogue these days – which is all you have managed to accomplish. Its doubtful that anyone will ever take your “research” seriously ever again. Oh right, the Apple haters will. I have an idea, why don’t you guys examine why people have an irrational and disproportionate hatred of a consumer electronic company? Start in your own offices.
[...] Owners are an elite bunch,” MyType intoned in a blog. “They’re wealthy, highly educated and sophisticated. They value power and achievement [...]
Geeks like technology cloaked in complexity as that is a venue that uniquely allows them entry and excludes the general public. Since for the most part Geeks are disenfranchised, they like the venues that favor them, rather than the ones that require social graces that by their very nature exclude them. The ipad is a device that allows all a means of entry to what has previously been their exclusive domain. This is a territory war and they are angry.
Very perceptive point.
[...] regard by the “Selfish Elite.” According to an artile by ipadnewsdaily.com, A recent study of survey data MyType took regarding the iPad indicates that independent geeks, those who are generally [...]
You present some interesting findings, and seem to have some real data to back up your claims. The problem I have is with your definitions – particularly “elite” and even more so “selfish.”
Let’s get a grip here – there are people who control great wealth and power in this country/world. These are the heads of major corporations and the government. These are the true elites. I find it amusing that you seem equate above average income with “elite,” although you do give a a series of qualities to justify the use of that word. It is interesting that you so heavily rely on “intellectual.” So to be intellectual in American society is “elite”? To be an artist in American society is elite? To me this is a travesty that show a very strange bias. A struggling writer is in the same league as Exxon’s CEO? hmm…
But even more suspect is your use of “selfish.” On what is this based? I quote you:
“And the selfishness? It is plausible to me that the selfish are more likely than non-selfish elites to jump on the opportunity to take work and the web deeper into their lives. The unselfish are less likely to be single-mindedly ambitious and more likely to be attuned to the needs of their families and other private, offline pursuits. Also keep in mind that all of these personality correlations are independent. Perhaps simply the willingness to shell out hundreds of dollars for an unproven personal device correlates with selfishness, regardless of whether we’re talking about elites or average people”
Notice the use of “it is plausible” and “perhaps” WOW! such definitive categorization of a group of people mere because you think it is plausible that there is a correlation.
And if you “Perhaps simply the willingness to shell out hundreds of dollars for an unproven personal device correlates with selfishness” you are then pre-defining anyone who spends money frivolously as selfish, even if that frivolous spending might actually bring some benefit. By your argument, anyone who ever buys a tablet of any kind will be selfish, at least if it costs hundreds of dollars.
On the other hand – this frivolous, self-serving, and baseless classification certainly garnered your site a lot of attention.
Now THAT is pretty selfish!
Admittedly I’m using the broader form of the word elite, i.e. ~5% of the population, not the “elite” you mention that refers to what, maybe 1/10th of a percent or less?
To qualify as a “selfish elite” (the segment of which 18% are iPad Owners, as we defined them) you had to match most of the following qualities: college education or higher, $75k household income or higher (top 25%), highly value power, highly value achievement, and score high on the personality trait “sophistication”. It’s multi-dimensional.
The selfishness was, if you read the post, based on the fact that iPad Owners scored very low (relative to everyone else) on our measures of altruism and kindness. These were measured by respondents’ answers to a variety of questions like
“It’s important to me to help people around me. I want to care for their well-being.”
and
“It is important for me to respond to the needs of others. I try to support those I know.”
and
“I want everyone to be treated justly, even people I don’t know. It is important to me to protect the weak in society.”
(Side note: before anyone interprets this politically, note that liberals and moderates are substantially more likely to be iPad Owners than conservatives and libertarians. There’s a political orientation graph in the report under “Opinion Segment Graphs”.)
Your “plausible” and “perhaps” quotes are pulled from my interpretation of the data, which I lead in with “Why are selfish elites adopting the iPad and independent geeks ridiculing it? We only have data on the who, not the why, but I’ll offer some possible explanations, starting with the geeks.” It was clearly speculation, informed by my own personal knowledge and what I read in studies like the one by Sybase.
I’ve followed the comments here, as well as your dialog with John Grohol, and I’ve come to the conclusion that MyType’s motivations with this entire endeavor are suspect. I congratulate you on getting your 15 seconds of internet fame, Tim.
[...] MyType-PC-Studie auf Scribd MyType-Blog: Elite gegen Geeks Forrester Research mit ähnlichen Ergebnissen (function () { var file = "theinquirer.de_v1.js"; [...]
[...] Owners are an elite bunch,” MyType intoned in a blog. “They’re wealthy, highly educated and sophisticated. They value power and achievement [...]
It’s quite amusing that the most irritated and “passionate” responses come from people who own iPads. As someone mentioned in an earlier comment, it’s almost as if they feel they’re personally being attacked. Their religion is being de-frocked (for lack of a better term), and they feel the need to defend it. As I said, amusing.
Anytime a group of people is generalized like that, it causes anger and discontent because it draws artificial lines between people. Let’s see, Justin, I’m assuming you are white (just a guess) so I figure you’re probably greedy and selfish and want the black populace to suffer and for urban culture to wither away just so you can feel safe in your all-white neighborhood again. In fact, I’m going to make a chart and post it on a blog so that tens of people will read it. Maybe you’re a geek too. If so, I’ve found that most geeks are fat, pale, losers with no lives, spending their lives playing WoW and drooling over the next comic-book movie release, basically, geeks are children that never grew up due to social stunting. And are you gay too? Because there are a lot of generalizations I can make about gay people…should I go on?
Feel free if you like. I take solace in the fact that, whatever you assume to know about me could either be true and/or false or some combination of both, but it has absolutely no bearing on the person I actually am. Nor does it affect my life in the slightest bit.
As far as the iPad goes, I have no need for it, as I have enough gadgets in my life. I can see others finding a great need for it. The only two people I know who DO have them however, fit this particular profile to a tee interestingly enough. That isn’t to say it’s indicative of all iPad users (nor did this analysis say that either), but my “findings” hold true none the less.
[...] owners are an elite bunch,” said MyType on its website. “They’re wealthy, highly educated and sophisticated. They value power and achievement [...]
I’m one of those people who bought an iPad because I was tired of web-browsing on a phone. I love the iOS and it works well for what I do, but I had, for a long time, wished that the device I used it on was bigger. Voila. Apple does exactly that. So I tried the iPad out at Best Buy, found it met my needs, and bought it. I didn’t buy it to show off or to feel better about myself. I haven’t even mentioned that I have one to most people I know. It’s like telling people about your new washing machine. Who cares? Just use it and get on with your life. It’s sad when a person uses technology simply for the novelty of using technology.
I own an iPad. I’m a care giver. I take care of my demented mother and have documented our journey so far. I write every day. I use the iPad to write when I wait in doctor’s offices.
I research food used as medicine and write recipes.
I am unemployed. I’m a 99er. none of your research applies to me. All it tells us is that Fa ebook users who take these “tests” are jerks.
Http://backdoorlogic.bloodspot.com
I first heard about your findings on the so called news this morning…well done, you are a brilliant marketer!
[...] recently by MyType that labeled iPad owners as a less than favorable group of people. MyType, who conducted its survey on Facebook, said iPad owners were “wealthy, highly educated and sophisticated. They value power and [...]
[...] Owners are an elite bunch,” MyType intoned in a blog. “They’re wealthy, highly educated and sophisticated. They value power and achievement [...]
[...] an iPad, you're probably an iHole, according to a recent study. MyType, a technology firm, conducted a survey with 20,000 Facebook users about the interests, characteristics and personalities of those who own [...]
[...] owners are an elite bunch,” said MyType on its website. “They’re wealthy, highly educated and sophisticated. They value power and achievement [...]
You should list somewhere an about/biography of yourself so people can realize the point of view you have when you write this.
[...] an iPad, you're probably an iHole, according to a recent study. MyType, a technology firm, conducted a survey with 20,000 Facebook users about the interests, characteristics and personalities of those who own [...]
[...] | Resultados completos de la encuesta Responder Clic para cancelar [...]
[...] but with a propensity toward unflattering attributes such as self-centredness and gluttony.The survey was conducted by MyType, using its popular Facebook application which aims to define the [...]
sophisticated? Me? I drink instant coffee and eat 3.99 cheap pizza night on monday. In fact this made me shoot my coffee out my nose I laughed so hard. Now I have coffee on my ManBook Pro, My iPad and My iPhone 4.
The bar for sophistication must be pretty low now… hehe
[...] http://mytype.com/blog/?p=109 [...]
[...] Pour voir, les résultats complets du sondage, cliquez ici. [...]
[...] página MyType.com realizó una curiosa encuesta en Facebook a más de 20.000 personas y los resultados fueron tanto o más curiosos, pasemos a [...]
[...] MyType. Random Posts: Torchwood Abundance No More: global food crisis as seen through high [...]
I’m trying to better understand your methodology. I’ve read through that section in the report but still have questions.
Can you clarify what you mean by “normalized”? Does this mean you standardized your data into Z scores or does this mean that you transformed the data to remove a skew in the distribution? What steps were taken to make your data comparable to the age, gender, and personality distributions of those living in the U.S.? (Was there a separate study–like the Census–done to collect personality distributions of people living in the U.S.? Is that data published somewhere?)
Also, are you using odds ratios when you use “affinity”? Can you cite sources for your affinity calculations so that I can better understand how the data were analyzed?
[...] Read the entire article. [...]
I plan to purchase a tablet (perhaps an iPad or perhaps something that comes along better in the next six months.)
iPad: two owner profiles:
Interestingly enough, the two people who have iPads that I am closest to are my daughter and my former boyfriend. My 52 year old former boyfriend is a selfish elitist by demographic and by personality traits. My 23 year old daughter is on the other end of the spectrum and is the most altruistic person that I know. The former boyfriend bought his ostensibly for his very spoiled 14 year old son. My daughter was given hers through her work as the Director of Communications and Mission Outreach for her church. My former boyfriend’s iPad is spending the summer in its owners father’s large home in Aspen. My daughter’s was in less glamorous digs as she was working with the poor in Belize.
I have to say that your study paints with a very broad brush but one that might just have a point.
[...] MyType Blog » Blog Archive » iPad Personality Clash: Elites vs. Geeks – [...]
[...] Grafiken und Analysen zu der iPad-Studie gibt es auf dem Blog der Verbraucherforscher von MyType. (ok) Keine News mehr verpassen: Folgen Sie HDDaily.de jetzt auf Twitter! Feed [...]
Even if the conclusions of this study are true, there is no accounting given for the popularity of social apps like Flipboard. Demand for Flipboard downloads was reported to have crashed the app store servers; yet, the application is a social one, focused on Facebook and Twitter. iSSH is also a pretty popular app, how many of the financial elite are using that?
And for an anecdotal accounts:
I first saw a screenshot of flipboard on the Twitter account of a guy I know who taught compiler design and optimization at Cambridge. I first learned that Sandman was available on the iPad from a very geeky lady who is married to a developer who once worked on Atari 2600 games.
I’m a pretty geeky guy. I’ve been using UNIX and UNIX-likes since before the 1.0 release of Linux. My career has centered around my technical ability. My circle of friends from high school (15 years ago) is full of people who have worked for open source projects or companies like Red Hat. I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on an education largely focused on *writing poetry* (hint: writing poetry is the opposite of making money.) I bristle at the censorship and control of the App Store, but I gave in– the iPad is as great as my anger against Steve Jobs.
Hey guys, on page 33 of the report you switched the legend around.
You also fail to discuss implications resulting from your data that these ‘more compassionate’ critics are also more likely to be conservative. How is being willing to pay for government programs that benefit everyone *less* altruistic?
Does the data measure compassion and altruism objectively, or is it based on what the respondent believes their own altruism to be? Someone who gives more than average could still believe they are being stingy, while someone who gives very little could consider themselves generous.
Thanks for the catch.
The critics aren’t very compassionate either. They score low on compassion, benevolence and altruism, just not as low as the owners.
I make statements on how we measure altruism, etc. in the comments. For instance one starts “…iPad Owners scored very low (relative to everyone else) on our measures of altruism and kindness. These were measured by respondents’ answers to a variety of questions like…” They should give you a better idea. All data is self-report.
Gratulations man, radio sunshine live spoke about your blog on 3 am. Header was your subject MyType Blog » Blog Archive » iPad Personality Clash: Elites vs. Geeks. Hot work. bye-bye
[...] mytype [...]
Hands down, Apple’s app store wins by a mile. It’s a huge selection of all sorts of apps vs a rather sad selection of a handful for Zune. Microsoft has plans, especially in the realm of games, but I’m not sure I’d want to bet on the future if this aspect is important to you. The iPod is a much better choice in that case.
[...] Grafiken sowie Beschreibung der Befragungsstruktur und des Vorgehens findet Interessenten auf der Webseite von MyType. (Daniel Schürmann | Quelle: mytype.com) Verwandte Meldungen:Was die iPad-Besitzer begeistert | [...]
[...] Grafiken sowie Beschreibung der Befragungsstruktur und des Vorgehens findet Interessenten auf der Webseite von MyType. (Daniel Schürmann | Quelle: [...]
[...] Wer noch mehr über sich selbst oder andere iPad-Besitzer erfahren möchte: Details gibt es im MyType-Blog. [...]
This site is so great that i will honor it with my comment
You’ve examined a niche group, within a niche group. I think a more accurate and varied sample group for this independent research could have proven more fruitful. Inspite of my love for most Apple products, I for one am not a fan of the iPad and I returned it. The fact still remains that this study does not have any legs to stand on.
[...] that iPad owners come from a ’selfish elite’ and likely to be, er, unkind. According to the survey, iPad owners are six times more likely to be ‘wealthy, well-educated, power hungry, [...]
[...] personas Egoístas Escrito Por Jonathan Ningún Comentario Según el sitio MyType y dailymail descubrió que las personas que tienen un iPad [...]
I bought an iPad for school, reading, writing, organizing and music composition. I’m broke now, I’ve been eating french loaves (which I nibble on the way to class) and refill empty mineral water bottles from the taps in the toilets for the past week.
But I’m a lot more happier and too occupied with the apps to care
Loved the information here I’ll have this bookmarked and will be back to read more.
[...] owners are an elite bunch,” said MyType on its website. “They’re wealthy, highly educated and sophisticated. They value power and achievement [...]
[...] Owners are an elite bunch,” MyType intoned in a blog. “They’re wealthy, highly educated and sophisticated. They value power and achievement [...]
[...] owners are an elite bunch,” said MyType on its website. “They’re wealthy, highly educated and sophisticated. [...]
such generalizations. it’s media like you that make this world a sadder place.Using Facebook as a study and generalizing from that …. your a sad company spreading non-sense based rubbish
This is terrible science. It honestly saddens me.
1. They have absolutely *no* scientific rigour in the way they have performed their analyses.
2. e.g. they ask the data too many questions. This makes it a flawed analysis. (if you ask too many questions of your data than there comes a point when you are more likely to get positive answers than not).
3. They have published this analysis without any form of peer-review.
4. Their data collection technique was flawed – Facebook? Absolutely random sample of the population – really?
5. Half their graphs don’t have axis labels or units. For all I know they could have taken the logarithm of the values, which would completely corrupt the look of the data.
6. STATISTICAL TESTS.
I don’t understand their motive in defaming the iPad, but they are perturbing proper science in order to do it.
As well as not performing statistical tests on their data, they also describe the “elite” as being “wealthy, highly educated and sophisticated”. Given the nasty connotations of calling someone part of an “elite bunch”, are MyType are saying we should all aspire to be poorly educated and poor? This makes no sense.
Apologies – they have used statistical tests. Unfortunately they used them on “hundreds of correlations”. Guess what – you WILL get positive results if you carry out hundreds of statistical tests on one set of data. This is what plagues the world of huge controlled studies in medicine – you ask too many questions and some X will always insignificantly correlate with another X. (Just so you know, the cutoff point is about 60 questions…).
I can’t help that the word “elite” has been hijacked as a pejorative. I was using it in the positive sense. What word do you think is better?
Stay tuned for the next report, we’ll do a much better job of reporting our results and methodologies.
Hmmm. Being that supplies of the iPad are still pretty tight, isn’t it a bit early to “type” iPad purchasers? All we really know at this point is that “most” of these people (according to the above article) are more likely to wait in line or order them. I’m a prime example. Me, being more of a geek, saw a great solution for my 70 year old mother who expressed a desire for a laptop (and is most definitely NOT “selfish or elite”). The iPad struck me as the perfect solution for my non-tech mother.
[...] las personas. Son también egoístas, y puntúan bajo en mediciones de amabilidad y altruismo.” (mytype.com/blog/?p=109) sin comentarios en: ocio, curiosidades karma: 10 etiquetas: ipad, facebook, [...]