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Study: 50 Million Americans Now Access Their News Through the Web

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 23, 2006 - 3:56am.
Washington - Some 50 million Americans now turn to the Internet for news on a typical day, nearly twice as many as in 2002, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The increase coincides with the rapid growth of broadband adaptation in American homes, Pew said. About 23% of respondents to a December survey said that they get their news from the Web. Among broadband users, however, that number climbed to 43% -- 5% higher than local newspapers and nearly as high as both national TV and radio. Among "high-powered" broadband users -- those who do more online in a typical day than other high-speed users -- 71% said that they get their news online, beating out all other categories, including local TV, radio and national TV, by wide margins.
tags: Internet | Reports | News | Americans |

Report: Europeans Using Their Music Phones More Than Americans

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 17, 2005 - 3:09am.
San Francisco - Europeans who own cell phones equipped with an MP3 player are four times more likely to use their phone to listen to music than their American counterparts, according to a report from market research firm Telephia. The survey found that 14% of European wireless subscribers now own a music phone; of these, 36% listen to music on their music phones, while the same is true for just 8% of Americans with music phones. "The advanced infrastructure and the higher availability of music-capable devices in Europe are key factors behind the bigger growth in adoption. The U.S. market is still waiting for higher bandwidth networks that would support faster full track music downloads," said Telephia vice president Kanishka Agarwal. The study also tracked the most popular music phone models, and found the Nokia 6230 leading among Europeans with a 26.6% market share, followed by the Samsung SGH-D500 (11.5%), Sony Ericsson K700 (9.6%), Nokia 6630 (7%) and Sony Ericsson K750 (3.7%). In the U.S. market, the Motorola V710 led with 22% of the market, followed by the Motorola MPX200 (17%), Handspring Treo 650 (16.8%), Sony Ericsson Z500 (7.9%) and Sony Ericsson S700
tags: Reports | Music Phones | Americans | Europeans |

Report: Two of Every Five Americans Now Have Broadband Access

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 28, 2005 - 4:59am.
New York - Two out of every fire Americans now have broadband Internet access at home, according to a new study released by Nielsen/NetRatings. The firm said that 120.8 million people, or 42% of the U.S. population, had high-speed connections in August, up from 103.8 million in January. "Although broadband penetration among Internet users has long been on the rise, it was always amid speculation that the high cost of broadband would limit its widespread adoption," said Charles Buchwalter, the vice president of client analytics for Nielsen/NetRatings. "However, over the last year, carriers have responded to the growing demand for lower cost broadband, and all indications are that this trend will continue." By contrast, fewer Internet surfers are using dial-up connections. Among at-home Internet users, those using a narrowband connection have decreased by 10% since August last year, from 60.6 million to 54.3 million.
tags: Reports | Americans | Broadband Access |

Report: Nearly 50 Million Americans Visited Blogs in First Quarter

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 8, 2005 - 3:08am.
Reston, Va. -- Nearly 50 million Americans -- or about 30% of the total U.S. Internet population -- visited weblogs, or "blogs," during the first quarter, according to a new report from comScore Networks. The number of visitors increased 45% from the previous year. "The fact that we found 30% of the online population to have visited blogs clearly underscores the commercial importance of consumer generated and driven media," said Dan Hess, senior vice president of comScore Networks. The firm said that blogs of a political nature were generally the most popular, followed by "hipster" lifestyle blogs, tech blogs and blogs authored by women. The report also found that, compared with the average Internet user, blog readers are significantly more likely to live in wealthier households, be younger and access the web on high-speed connections.
tags: Blogs | Reports | Americans | First Quarter |

Survey: Over 700,000 Americans Rely on eBay Sales for Income

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 22, 2005 - 8:31am.
New York -- Entrepreneurs in record numbers are setting up shop on eBay, according to a new survey conducted for the online auction giant by ACNielsen International Research. The survey, conducted earlier this month, found that more than 724,000 Americans report eBay as their primary or secondary source of income, with another 1.5 million saying that they supplement their income by selling on eBay. In the first six months of this year, eBay members in the U.S. sold merchandise worth approximately $10.6 billion.
tags: Survey | Americans | Rely | eBay Sales | Income |

Report: Americans Increasingly Storing Large Video Files on PCs

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 24, 2005 - 6:50am.
Port Washington, N.Y. -- The number of Americans with large video files stored on their PCs rose from 8% last year to 13% in March 2005, according to a survey conducted by New York-based market research firm NPD Group. Of the 13% who had a 150MB video file on their computers -- about the size of a half-hour TV show -- each additionally had an average of 15 such files on their PCs. "What will trouble many, especially in the film and video industry, is that some consumer collections include material that is clearly pirated," said NPD analyst Russ Crupnick. "In March, we noted several dozen full-length theatrical films on computers well before their expected DVD release date, including 'Ocean's Twelve,' 'Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events,' 'Million Dollar Baby,' 'The Aviator,' 'The Ring Two,' and 'Team America World Police.'" NPD plans to launch an ongoing PC survey of 40,000 panelist volunteers called MovieWatch Digital in the fourth quarter of 2005, which will monitor consumer interaction with digital video files.
tags: Video | Reports | Americans | PCs | Files |

Survey: Americans Want New Technologies Like HDTV, but for Right Price

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 31, 2005 - 7:24am.
Rochester, N.Y. -- About 27% of adults say that they are likely to buy a high-definition television set within the next year, the highest percentage among seven electronic devices tested in a new survey by Harris Interactive. And although next-generation DVD players have not yet been marketed in the U.S., 24% of American adults surveyed indicate interest in buying one within the next year. "While considerable proportions of American adults are attracted to these technologies, the survey also shows that their interest may be tempered by the reality of the affordability of those products," said Harris' Greg Durkin.
tags: HDTV | Survey | Price | Americans | New Technologies |

Report: 37% of Americans Went Online for Political News During 2004

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 7, 2005 - 6:49am.
Washington -- Seventy-five million Americans, or about 37% of the adult population, went online to get political news and information during the 2004 election year, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Furthermore, 61% of online Americans used the Internet to find political news and information, discuss candidates and debate issues in emails, or participate directly in the political process by volunteering or giving contributions to candidates. While television still remains the primary source of political news for registered voters, the Internet surpassed radio for the first time, as 18% said they got most political news last year online, compared with 17% for radio.
tags: Internet | Reports | Online | Americans | Political News |

Report: One in Six Americans Have Used Wireless Internet

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 13, 2004 - 5:28am.

Washington -- One in six Americans (17%) have logged on to the Internet via a wireless connection, such as a laptop with Wi-Fi or an Internet-connected cell phone, according to the findings of a recent survey of U.S. Internet users conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The percentage was even higher among those aged 18-27, as 28% of those reported having accessed the wireless Internet. Overall, the survey also found that a record 73% of Americans over 18 use computers, and that 63% report using the Internet.
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=121
tags: Internet | Wireless | Americans |

Survey: 75% of Americans Think Downloading Songs for Personal Use OK

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 29, 2004 - 2:18am.
Rochester, N.Y. -- In a recent survey on peer-to-peer music services, three in four adult Americans (75%) agreed that, while "downloading and then selling the music is piracy and should be prohibited, downloading for personal use is an innocent act and should not be prohibited." The September 2003 survey, conducted by New York-based Harris Interactive, gels with an October survey of teenagers, who said that downloading music files without paying (74%) and letting others download files from them (78%) should be legal. However, two-thirds of adults surveyed (64%) also said they believe "musicians and recording companies should get the full financial benefit of their work." Additionally, 70% of adults agreed that, "if the price of CDs was a lot lower, there would be a lot less downloading of music off the Internet." "All of this suggests that the music industry is fighting an uphill battle in winning the hearts and minds of Americans to support prohibitions against downloading," said Harris Interactive's Robert Leitman. "Their opportunity is to make the as yet unmade link in the public’s consciousness between downloading and its financial impact on musicians and recording companies."
tags: Downloads | Survey | Americans | Musics | Personal Use |

Report: Affluent Americans Still Reign on Internet

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 3, 2003 - 5:08am.
San Bruno, Calif. -- Internet users living in affluent households consumed an average of nearly 3,000 web pages in August, almost 300 more than the average user, according to new research by ComScore, a provider of Internet audience measurement services. Despite the narrowing of the digital divide, nearly 26 million Americans with a household income of $100,000 or more used the Internet during the month, spending an average of 27.6 hours online -- more than any other income segment, and over three hours more than with a household income of $15,000-$24,999. Of the retail sites most visited by the affluent, Neiman Marcus led the way, followed by Costco, IBM, Bed Bath & Beyond and Nike.
tags: Internet | Reports | Americans | Affluent |

Survey: 40 Million Americans Have Downloaded Online Music

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 21, 2003 - 2:42am.
New York -- Half of all teens and one-fifth of all Americans age 12 and older report having downloaded a music or MP3 file from a file-sharing service, according to the latest data from New York-based market research firm Ipsos-Reid. Nearly ten percent of these report having done so in the last thirty days. This translates into over 40 million file-sharers within the current U.S. population (according to 2000 U.S. Census figures). The survey also found that 25 percent of Americans 12 and older now own a CD burner, a figure that leaps to 60 percent when polling active file-sharers. Twelve percent of those polled said they had burned a CD owned by someone else rather than buy it themselves, with 42 percent of U.S. file-sharers reporting having done this activity. "As Americans become more familiar with the inherent music capabilities included in today's off-the-shelf PC product bundles, they are also experimenting with PC-based music acquisition and management, as well as mixing and burning CDs," said Ipsos director Matt Kleinschmit.
tags: Internet | Downloads | Survey | Americans | Musics |