survey

iPad leads in brand satisfaction among U.S. consumers, though a relatively obscure tablet maker came in a close second, according to IHS iSuppli.

Rivals face a steep challenge in the U.S. because consumers are fixated on Apple's tablet to the detriment of other brands, according to the "U.S. Tablet Consumer Preference" study released today by iSuppli.

"Apple's competitors in the tablet market already are facing major challenges in offering products that can match the iPad's combination of optimized hardware, software, operating system, applications, content and app store," Rhoda Alexander, an … Read more

Apple's iPhone 5 hasn't even been announced yet, but already U.S. consumers are poised to buy it.

According to PriceGrabber, which conducted a study earlier this month with 2,852 U.S. respondents, 35 percent of consumers plan to buy the iPhone 5 when it's released. Moreover, the online-shopping service found that 51 percent of consumers will buy Apple's reportedly upcoming smartphone in its first year of availability, while 31 percent will pick it up before the end of 2011.

The only issue is, there isn't an iPhone 5 for those consumers to buy. … Read more

Chip giant Intel procured over 1,493 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy in 2010.

That's according to a survey of over 1,000 companies that was conducted by Bloomberg New Energy Finance in conjunction with wind turbine giant Vestas Wind Systems.

The index developed from this new survey is called the Corporate Renewable Energy Index (CREX). (For a PDF of the white paper on the survey, click here.) For its inaugural release the CREX released rankings of companies based on the amount of renewable energy they procured both in 2009 and 2010.

For 2010, the top five companies with the largest renewable electricity procurement were: Intel, clothing retailer Kohl's, Hong Kong electric company CLP Holdings, supermarket chain Whole Foods Market, and the Dutch telecom Koninklijke KPN.

For 2009, the ranking was Deutsche Telekom, Intel, PepsiCo, BT Group, and clothing retailer Kohl's.

Keep in mind that no one is suggesting these companies are gleaning electricity directly from local solar or wind farms. While some companies do directly support renewable-energy projects, over 80 percent of the renewable electricity procured by the companies surveyed was purchased in the form of renewable electricity credits (RECs).

And while Intel procured the most renewable electricity in 2010 at over 1,493 gigawatt-hours, on a percentage basis it's actually Kohl's that wins. In 2010 the retailer purchased so many RECs, it statistically can say it garnered 100.4 percent of its energy from renewable sources.

In conjunction with the CREX, Vestas also had TNS/Gallup conduct a survey on wind energy procurement in particular.

When it comes to wind, Whole Foods tops the list. The supermarket chain gets 100 percent of its electricity from wind energy, followed by North American bank Toronto-Dominion Bank at 78 percent, and software giant Adobe Systems at 65 percent, according to the Global Consumer Wind Study 2011.

More statistics and rankings of companies by industry can be found in Appendix D (page 30) of the CREX white paper (PDF) released by Bloomberg New Energy Finance and Vestas.… Read more

Smartphone adoption is growing in many demographics, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center.

The Pew poll estimates that 35 percent of American adults own a smartphone device. The data is based on a survey conducted in May, which found that 83 percent of U.S. adults have a cell phone, and 42 percent of those people have a smartphone.

The types of people adopting smartphones vary, but Pew found the highest concentration of individuals range from "financially well-off and well-educated; under the age of 45; and African American and Latinos."

Internet access is critical … Read more

Apple customers downloaded more than 5 million games each day in March from the company's App Store, say market researchers Distimo and Newzoo, and that's just among the 63 million users tracked for a recent survey.

Combining their individual data for a single report, Distimo and Newzoo found that games are the single biggest category of apps on Apple's App Store, accounting for half of all downloads of both free and paid apps. Tracking a total of 63 million iOS users in March across the U.S. and six countries in Europe, the two research firms discovered … Read more

iPads are catching on among business users, a study released today has found, but most of them don't have a clear strategy for the tablets.

Dimensional Research, in a survey of 448 businesses, found that 22 percent have deployed tablets, 22 percent plan to do so this year, and 24 percent plan to next year.

And although Apple isn't known for its corporate focus or market penetration, it's the leader when it comes to tablets: 83 percent said they would be using iPads. That compares to 17 percent for RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook, 14 percent for HP'… Read more

Space: the final frontier. This is the voyage of two men--father and son--who traveled the globe to capture the night sky like never before.

The recently completed Photopic Sky Survey is one of the most ambitious true-color glamour shots of the universe ever created, detailing countless galaxies and hundreds of millions of stars within. Capturing the 5-gigapixel (5,000 megapixel) image was a painstaking effort for Nick Risinger, the creator of the project, who stitched together 37,440 exposures to create the final shot. The breathtaking panorama is also the result of some serious globe-trotting, as he set off on a "45,000 miles by air and 15,000 by land" journey with his retired father, visiting most of the western states in the U.S., as well as the Cape of South Africa.

With the navigational help of a computer to ensure accuracy, Risinger broke the sky down into 624 areas (each 12 degrees wide) and specifically captured each portion through 60 exposures. Four short, medium, and long shots with each camera were taken to help reduce noise, satellite trails, and other inaccuracies. Some serious hardware was used in the survey: … Read more

It's hard to imagine what the universe looked like 11 billion years ago, especially when I have trouble imagining what I want to do this weekend.

Scientists with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey are helping out by creating what they say is the largest 3D map of our universe. They did so by relying on ancient light emanating from quasars situated many eons away.

Quasars are extremely bright, remote objects that are often referred to as a "galactic nucleus" and emit incredible amounts of energy. A total of 14,000 quasars were tapped to create the map, and mapmakers used them in conjunction with interstellar hydrogen gas clouds that absorb light as it travels to Earth.

The detail in the map is based on wavelengths of quasar light that are absorbed by hydrogen gas clouds, revealing specific wavelengths of light and the distance between each. The result is a stunning 11-billion-year-old cosmological model. … Read more

Marketers have become more realistic about how to best engage their audiences, according to the results of a new IBM survey.

The State of Marketing 2011 report presented today at a marketing event in Boston covered nearly 300 online and direct marketers across a wide range of industries, geographies, and company sizes. Results reveal that marketers have become more practical about their expectations for both mobile and social marketing, as well as the realization that their efforts are strongly tied to IT, especially when it comes to making marketing campaigns actionable for the end-user.

From the survey results: