iPad threatens TV viewing numbers

The iPad is a pretty nifty product, being able to change the way we consume content online. It is practically a computer but more importantly, an aggregation of personalized things that we need to do on the go. To top all these things off, there are some studies that show that the use of iPad has been moved back to the evening where people would usually watch television. It is safe to say that evening reading that has been lost for quite some time has come back in an awesome new package. This intriguing information was collated by ReadItLater, a web service for bookmarking web content for consumption at a later period.

Taking a look at the servers of ReadItLater, with their time normalized in various time zones, the team was able to see that the PC users are spreading out their reading across the day. On a regular day, the wee hours, or those unholy hours have very low internet consumption. When a person goes to work; the use of the internet increases. The peaks of these internet reading times are spent during lunch and just after dinner. This is just how you would see it in the regular computer set up. When looking at the data from iPhone and iPad traffic, everything changes.

For iPhone users, the peaks are in the morning while at breakfast, while commuting to work and back home and at night before retiring to bed. It is pretty commonsense for a smart phone to be consumed that way. However, for the iPad users, the consumption has been really unique. You start using the device a little bit in the morning and then at lunch. The biggest spike would have to be at night, from 7 up to 11 pm. The data does not show how the device is being used, but given that people will most likely have the iPad on their hands while sitting on the living room sofa or the bed, it has become probably that evening reading time has returned.

Now advertising executives and TV executives need to be aware of these small and handy devices, in actuality, they may also be doing the same thing. New technology has easily integrated with the so called normal life and so those minutes of advertising could be consumed reading the evening digital paper, reading other news or watching a video online. This is critical information that the TV networks and advertisers should check as it could affect their sales and revenues at the end of the day.

With a massive influx of tablet devices that are even cheaper than the iPad, it is safe to say that the digital content will continue pushing forward to a unique direction. This can affect how people use information, be entertained and how much info they want to access at a certain period of time. It can also reveal what kind of content and information you can use online and how networks can utilize these pieces of information for their own programming. Nonetheless, the internet has their ads a bit more tamed compared to the television where you have to settle to viewing them no matter what.