Originally published June 28 2005
Study: Listeners love iPod for music, privacy
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Music lovers aren't just addicted to their iPods for the music, a study conducted by British sociologist Michael Bull and reported on in the National Post finds. Those wishing to capitalize on the iPod craze might be disappointed to learn that those Bull surveyed use their iPod to shut out the world.
A British sociologist has bad news for the mixed-media wizards looking to use streaming video and other tactics to tap into the lucrative IPod culture.
He's found that owners of Apple's popular digital music player love being able to shut out the world's distractions, hate their cellphones and would prefer not to talk to anyone.
"These people are already screening out ads," says Michael Bull, whose research into the surging popularity of the sleek hand-held device has gained him the moniker "Professor IPod."
As entertainment and gaming companies - to say nothing of direct advertisers - brainstorm ways to connect with millions of potential customers on their mobile technology, Bull says it will be a tough sell.
In fact, he dismisses the suggestion that 21st-century tech-savvy consumers actually want what marketers are pushing.
"It's not that they don't want to know about things, but they want to define the terms and conditions" under which they are disturbed, said Bull, who teaches media and technology at the University of Sussex.
His subjects were primarily professional men and women in their late 20s to 40s.
And while Bull's research is just a tiny sample of the IPod revolution - Apple sold 5.3 million of the devices in the first three months of 2005 - his sense is that the marketing dilemma will only get worse.
"These are also the affluent, intelligent people that advertisers want, precisely the people who are hardest to get," he said.
"Are advertisers then going to be left with less affluent, lower socio-economic groups who aren't worth as much in terms of advertising revenues?"
Virtually all said the IPod was their favourite consumer object, with many adding it had reinvigorated their musical tastes by allowing hours of tunes and other broadcasts to be downloaded from the Internet commercial-free.
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