Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/25/nielsen_restates_ipad_stats/
Nielsen cops to iPad stat cock-up
Fewer iPad download virgins
Posted in Mobile, 25th October 2010 20:06 GMT
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The customarily competent media-survey firm, The Nielsen Company, has backtracked on its startling claim that one-third of all iPad users have never download an app. The company now says that the number of download virgins is fewer than one in ten.
"This article [1] and the related download [2] have been amended to reflect updates to the percentage of iPad users in the survey downloading apps," now reads a post on the company's blog describing the study in which the download stats appear.
The "related download" to which Nielsen's brief update notification refers is a précis of the survey firm's recent study, released last week, entitled "Connected Devices: Does the iPad Change Everything?" When it was first released, that "fact sheet" [sic] included a chart that looked like this:
Nielsen's original take on iPad app-download stats
That chart has since been amended, and now looks like this:
'Did we say 32 per cent? Excuse us — we meant 9 per cent'
Face, meet egg. Not only does Nielsen come out looking foolish in this cock-up, but so do the BBC, MSNBC, InformationWeek, Wired, and many other media outlets — including The Reg [3] — that reported the original figures.
How did Nielsen manage to first misstate the number of iPad download virgins by a massive 350 per cent? What prompted them to restate their figures? Did they receive a phone call from some Cupertinian corner office?
We've asked Nielsen to comment on their turnaround, but didn't immediately receive an answer any more satisfying than "we'll get back to you." ®