Comments on: Podcasts popular with Trekkies, Mac users

People who download podcasts share a distinct personality, according to an ongoing study of online behavior.

[ServedUp]

Wow.

Wow!

CNET is just dying to put Apple news no matter how lame the
story is. Gee, what a very informative article.

Next I guess we'll here something about the Argo product.. X-
toy that Microsoft is putting out. Its great to see Microsoft in
action again.. X-Player or Argo is definitely going to help the
world move forward.. and I can't wait to add my money to the
billions of dollars Microsoft has in the bank.

Wait to go Microsoft!!! Yooohooo

[lesfilip]

Bizarre but interesting article...

but it only shows that users of podcast content are forward
thinkers, not wackos.

It is not surprising that a big fraction of podcast downloaders use
Macs, as users of other operating systems are often times too busy
rebooting to learn anything new ; )

Have a nice day!

[sickboy76]

what an idiot

it seems that this guy along with many others likes to stroke his own ego by congratulating themselves on purchasing what they consider the rolls royce of the computing world. get over it! just because you got a mac doesn't make you any better, you just got out of paying bill g. some money. but now you got a machine that can't run alot of stuff everyone else in the world can. yeah you got ipod before it was cool. but everyone else had mp3 players before ipod was out, and i can play those songs on my car cd player, computer and my home entertainment system without buying extra crap to hook it up. so you may save time on your boot cycle, a few seconds maybe if you have a halfway up to date computer. but use it to learn like you said. instead of buying junk bc every celebrity was given one free or because you saw 30 comercials on tv and 12 ads in mags yesterday, look on line with your screaming fast mac and see what else is out there. live up the the little ego strokes you give yourself on these threads, and be foreward thinking for real. actualy think for yourself and buy what's the best, not what has the most advertising behind it. ms leads the industry. period... not because i see microsoft running tv adds talking s about mac, but because it is superior. the only people to believe the mac comercials are sheep who shop at the gap and old nave, drive a vw because it has an ipod outlet, shop trader joes and wifi at starbucks. you are buying the image, not the product. your ipod blows and it cost 20 times more than an mp3 player. your mac, well, their new thing is "now you can run windows" what the "f". get a clue. and believe it or not i read and responded to this all on the "other operating system" and i didn't evern reboot once. wow...

Podcasts popular

CNET is a little late with this info, arent't they? Podcasts have been around for a while now.
http://www.techknowcafe.com/content/view/551/43/
Can't believe it took them this long to recognize podcasting popularity. Their next revelation article is going to be about how HTML is used to build websites.

[Thrudheim]

Statistics are misinterpreted

I was very surprised and fascinated when I first read this article.
It would be amazing, if true, that the majority of podcast
downloaders use Safari, but this statement is based on very
significant errors in interpretation of the statistics.

If you read the pdf of the actual report, what you see is that the
typical person who downloads podcasts is three times more
likely to use Safari than is the average web user. In the U.S.,
Safari has a bit over 3% share of average web browsing, so
roughly 10% of people downloading podcasts use Safari.

In contrast, 85% of web use is done with Internet Explorer, but
the proportion of IE use among people who download podcasts
is lower than average. Specifically, it about .88 of the overall
rate, according to the survey, so somewhere around 75% of
people who download podcasts use IE.

So the article is quite wrong.

Similarly, the article is completely wrong to report that Macworld
is the most popular website among people who download
podcasts. The more accurate interpretation is that people in the
group who download podcasts were 6 times more likely to visit
Macworld than people overall.

So, yes, Apple's efforts at bringing podcasts to wider use does
mean that Mac users are overrepresented among podcast
listeners, but the base population of Mac users is so small that
they are still in a minority even when overrepresented.

Finally, with respect to the Nike conclusion, it is completely
wrong to say that Niketown.com is the #1 commerce site for
podcast listeners. It is much more likely Amazon.com or some
other major retailer. How many shoes can one buy? The correct
conclusion is that the ratio of the rate of use of Niketown.com
among podcast listeners to the rate of use of that site by
average web users is higher than the respective ratios of
podcast/non-podcast listeners for the other web commerce
sites.

[Thrudheim]

Statistics Misinterpreted

Apologies if this turns out to be a double post . . . got the error
message upon submitting the first time.

I was very surprised and fascinated when I first read this article.
It would be amazing, if true, that the majority of podcast
downloaders use Safari, but this statement is based on very
significant errors in interpretation of the statistics.

If you read the pdf of the actual report, what you see is that the
typical person who downloads podcasts is three times more
likely to use Safari than is the average web user. In the U.S.,
Safari has a bit over 3% share of average web browsing, so
roughly 10% of people downloading podcasts use Safari.

In contrast, 85% of web use is done with Internet Explorer, but
the proportion of IE use among people who download podcasts
is lower than average. Specifically, it about .88 of the overall
rate, according to the survey, so somewhere around 75% of
people who download podcasts use IE.

So the article is quite wrong.

Similarly, the article is completely wrong to report that Macworld
is the most popular website among people who download
podcasts. The more accurate interpretation is that people in the
group who download podcasts were 6 times more likely to visit
Macworld than people overall.

So, yes, Apple's efforts at bringing podcasts to wider use does
mean that Mac users are overrepresented among podcast
listeners, but the base population of Mac users is so small that
they are still in a minority even when overrepresented.

Finally, with respect to the Nike conclusion, it is completely
wrong to say that Niketown.com is the #1 commerce site for
podcast listeners. It is much more likely Amazon.com or some
other major retailer. How many shoes can one buy? The correct
conclusion is that the ratio of the rate of use of Niketown.com
among podcast listeners to the rate of use of that site by
average web users is higher than the respective ratios of
podcast/non-podcast listeners for the other web commerce
sites.

[Lucky Lou]

Excellent perspective

Statistics get wrangled in all kinds of directions. Did you know
65% of all statistics are fabricated?

Here's more perspective: 25-34 year-olds are more active video
podcast downloaders than 18-24 year-olds, yes, but probably
only because they are the ones more likely to be able to afford
video iPods because they have jobs and 18-24 year-olds
generally don't have that kind of dough. It has nothing to do
with one group liking that kind of stuff more than the other, it's
financial ability to use it.

[sickboy76]

money, that's the reason?

correct me if i am wrong, but isn't it true that you can just watch the video on any old pc? a person would not have to buy a video ipod in order to watch a podcast. only an idiot would buy a video ipod just to watch a podcast. i mean, don't you have to hook your video ipod up to a computer in order to get that podcast on your ipod in the first place? so even if one could not afford the video ipod they would still be able to watch the podcast if they were so inclined. financial status or availability would then be negated as a factor for younger people to watch video podcasts. they just have other interests. not that they are doing anything better, they are probably too busy updating thier myspace account for the billionth time. but anyway, i don't think that money is the reason, young users are usually quite able to get what they want without forking over the dough. older people usualy just buy what they are told will work best. podcast, i must need an ipod then. not true. it must be something else.