Steve Jobs is a hit with teens--even bigger than Oprah or the Olsen twins.
The Apple co-founder and CEO is the most admired entrepreneur among teenagers, according to the results of a survey released Tuesday by Junior Achievement, an organization that educates students on matters related to future employment.
Being "funnest" apparently has little to do with Apple CEO Steve Jobs' popularity.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)Of 1,000 teens queried, Jobs garnered 35 percent of the vote, beating out a list of predetermined celebrities that included Oprah Winfrey (25 percent), skateboarder Tony Hawk (16 percent), and Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg (10 percent). Rounding out the list were Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen with 7 percent and fashion model Kimora Lee Simmons with 4 percent.
Of those who chose Jobs, 61 percent selected the iPod god because he "made a difference in/improved people's lives or made the world a better place." An overwhelming 85 percent who selected Winfrey cited the same reason.
Another 33 percent chose Jobs because of his "success in multiple fields," presumably his success at Apple and animation studio Pixar.
Apparently, wealth and fame played a minimal role for the 12- to 17-year-olds polled, garnering just 4 percent for Jobs and 3 percent for Winfrey.
"We live in a celebrity-obsessed culture, so it's no surprise that teens admire famous entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey, who have built brands around their personas as well as around their products," Jack Kosakowski, president of Junior Achievement USA, said in a statement.
However, what is surprising is that Zuckerberg rated so low. One would think his popularity with the teens would parallel the explosive growth of his social network. Perhaps Facebook's popularity with baby boomers is keeping kids on MySpace, which begs the question: how would Rupert Murdoch have scored if he had been included?
Retailers have a love-hate relationship with social media, according to a study set to be released next week.
The E-tailing Group, which specializes in retail sector trends, surveyed 117 companies--from small to large--to assess how retailers and brands view the social Web.
The biggest concern among respondents is that consumers will "trash their products in front of a large audience," according to E-tailing Group. At the same time, companies very much want to partake in the social Web.
Ninety-three percent of companies surveyed said they are seeking greater customer engagement through social-media efforts. And 76 percent want to use social networks to "mobilize advocates through word of mouth."
"Brands are especially worried about negative comments hurting a brand, but they also know that they need to go social. That's why they're using Facebook and Twitter with some success," E-tailing Group spokeswoman Lauren Freedman said.
Of all social media, Facebook drew the most interest of respondents, followed by Twitter. Tying for third place were customer reviews and blogs. Viral videos took fifth.
Eighty-six percent of respondents already use Facebook Fan pages to deliver a social experience to their customers. Only 1 percent of those companies have no plans to deploy a Facebook Fan page.
Sixty-five percent of companies are using Twitter as a tool to market their brands. However, 9 percent said they don't plan to open a Twitter account or market their brand through it.
Fifty-five percent said they allow customer reviews on their sites and feature blogs. And 50 percent have used viral videos.
Company marketers aren't testing the social waters just for the fun of it, though.
"They don't want to do this unless it delivers the return on investment that their companies are expecting," Freedman said.
Still, it's not Facebook or Twitter--the two social tools retailers are using most often--that companies expect will help them increase sales. Instead, customer reviews take the top spot.
According to the study, about 85 percent of respondents believe customer reviews across the Web are a great way to increase sales. They reason that consumers listen to their peers. By comparison, just 33 percent of companies believe a Facebook Fan page can increase sales.
Looking ahead, the E-tailing Group sees social adoption continuing to grow in the marketplace. Twenty-five percent of respondents expect that companies will be "much more aggressive" in the social arena. And 50 percent said companies will be "more aggressive" in the next six months.
"Quick adoption of social networks is a guarantee over the next six months," Freedman said. "That's mainly due to movements to social brands by the competition."
In other words, no company wants to be left behind.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
The tech industry buzzes a lot about e-book readers. But how widely are they actually used?
Among 1,529 consumers who responded to a July 2009 questionnaire from research firm In-Stat, only 5.8 percent currently own an e-book reader. And only 11 percent of those questioned said they planned to buy one in the next 12 months, according to the In-Stat report released this week.
Those low results may be even more significant given that In-Stat's survey audience consisted of high-end consumers who typically adopt new technology earlier than the general public.
Another study released last week by Forrester discovered that consumers find e-book readers much too expensive. Extrapolating from the 4,706 U.S. consumers questioned, Forrester found that almost 65 percent of U.S. adults online would consider a price of $98 or less too expensive for an e-book reader but would still purchase one.
Fewer than 20 percent said $99 to $148 was too pricey for a reader though they would still buy one, while 14 percent said the same about readers in the $149 to $198 range.
(Credit:
Forrester Research)
Those results are significant in a market where Amazon's least expensive Kindle sells for $299, even after a recent price cut, and Sony's less-pricey Pocket edition Reader sells for $199.
In-Stat's survey found a greater tolerance for high prices. Among its audience, 40 percent of potential buyers would pay $200 to $299 for a reader, 29 percent would pay $100 to $199, and 13.6 percent would pay less than $100.
(Credit:
In-Stat)
Among current users of e-book readers, In-Stat found the number one requested feature is e-mail. Potential buyers cited better battery life and Internet connectivity as the two most important factors in persuading them to buy a reader.
Of the number of e-book users questioned in the In-Stat survey, more than 58 percent own the Amazon Kindle, while 9 percent use Sony's Reader. Around 45.5 percent of them spend between $9 and $20 a month on e-books.
In its report, Forrester predicted that 2 million U.S. consumers will buy an e-reader this year, in addition to the 1 million who bought one in 2008.
Forrester's blog dissected the meaning of its survey: "The maximum addressable market for eReaders as they are currently priced is substantial--but to reach the largest market possible, the prices will need to come way down. And even then, eReaders are never going to be as big a market as MP3 players, which 110 million US consumers own."
A study commissioned by Web security company AVG Technologies and the Chief Marketing Officers Council (CMO) points out an interesting contradiction between people's concerns and actions regarding security risks on social networking sites.
The summary report says that "while the majority of social networking users are afflicted by web-borne security problems, less than one third are taking actions to protect themselves online."
Unfortunately, the data provided to the media as of Tuesday afternoon says very little about the study's methodology, lacks the actual questions asked, and in some cases lacks the actual percentages of responses. It did, however, say that the data is based on "responses from a random sampling of more than 250 consumers." It was conducted online during second quarter of 2009. The report didn't specify how they developed a random sampling--a difficult task for Web-based surveys. In addition to the small sample size, it's not clear how they derived the sample and whether it was truly representative of the population they were studying.
As someone who has studied, taught, and conducted survey research, I am disappointed by how little information was provided to the media about the methodology and specific results of this study. However, with that caveat, I still think the data is interesting and worth reporting.
Participants, according to the summary, "indicated concern over growing phishing, spam and malware attacks, and nearly half of those surveyed are very concerned about their personal identity being stolen in an online community." The report said that "nearly 20 percent experienced identity theft" but didn't define identify theft. An AVG spokesperson told me that it means impersonation online, not the typical definition that almost always involves financial fraud. A CMO spokesperson said it was based on a concern that users could download malware on social-networking sites, which could lead to identity theft and other problems.
Online impersonation can result in financial fraud but often is used as a form of cyberbullying to embarrass someone or make them look as if they said something they didn't really say. It can also be used as part of a scam to get a "friend" of the person being impersonated to send money to help their "friend" who claims to be stranded in a foreign country or otherwise in trouble. As per malware--that too is true. Malware, however it is distributed, can install keyloggers that can capture confidential information that can lead to identity theft.
In the survey, 47 percent of the respondents said they "have been victims of malware infections" and "55 percent have seen phishing attacks." What isn't clear is whether the infections or phishing attacks are from social-networking sites or some other source. It is possible for malware to be distributed through social-networking sites, often in the form of links to Web sites that contain malicious code, but there are plenty of other ways to get it. Social-networking sites could be used for phishing attacks, but phishing usually comes via e-mail. To say that users of social-networking sites have been exposed to phishing and malware would be like saying that most people who eat spinach are likely to have had measles when they were children. There is a correlation, but no evidence of causality.
The study also reported that most of the 86 percent of the sample who said they use social-networking sites "fail to perform the following basic security measures on a regular basis," including changing passwords (64 percent infrequently or never), adjusting privacy settings (57 percent infrequently or never) or "informing their social network administrator on security issues." The report didn't specify what a "social networking administrator" is. In my house it's me, but an AVG spokesperson said that the report was likely referring to the "report abuse" links provided by most social-networking sites.
The survey also found that 21 percent accept contact offerings from members they don't recognize, "more than half let acquaintances or roommates access social networks on their machines, 64 percent click on links offered by community members or contacts and 26 percent share files.
AVG recommends that social networking users:
1. Don't accept pop-ups or prompts for software unless you're armed with Web scanner software such as AVG's free LinkScanner
2. Don't post or submit confidential personal data
3. Change password at least once per month
4. Don't let others access their social networks on your computer
5. Don't auto save your password, and clear your history at least weekly
6. Don't accept friend requests or request friends that you don't know
Mostly good advice
I certainly agree that it's a very bad idea to post confidential information, even if you limit access to your profile to people who really are friends. I don't even like using e-mail to send out anything confidential--digital information has a way of being copied and friends can sometimes become ex-friends.
I also agree with the suggestion not to autosave passwords and to periodically clear your Web history and strongly agree that all Windows users have up-to-date malware-detection software.
While a terrific idea, it's unrealistic to expect people to change their passwords monthly though, as I pointed out in a recent post, it is important for social networkers to have very strong passwords and consider using a password manager like LastPass.
The advice to not let others use your computer is also unrealistic. Some people have to share a computer at home or at work and few of us would turn down a friend's request to sit at our computer a few minutes to check their social-networking profile.
As per accepting friend requests from strangers, it depends how you use your social-networking page. I accept all friend requests on Facebook but never post anything that I wouldn't publish in a newspaper or say on radio or TV. If you use your social-networking site to share personal information, then AVG is right--be careful who you accept as a friend and even then, be cautious about what you post.
Microsoft announced Wednesday that it's planning a quick hand-off in its pending acquisition of Greenfield Online, selling Greenfield's online Internet survey business to ZM Capital.
Microsoft's acquisition of Greenfield, a consumer shopping sites operator, and the hand-off of Greenfield's survey business to ZM Capital's ZM Surveys are expected to happen simultaneously in the fourth quarter. But the software giant noted its Greenfield deal is not contingent upon the side deal with ZM Surveys.
Greenfield's Internet survey solutions (ISS) business collects, organizes, and sells consumer and business survey data to market research firms as well as offers real-time survey sampling. But the service does not fit in Microsoft's game plan for its Live Search.
"It was very important to Microsoft to find the right partner to champion the continued growth of the Greenfield Online ISS business, which is not a fit within Microsoft's strategy for our Live Search platform," Tami Reller, chief financial officer of Windows and Online Services at Microsoft, said in a statement.
She added that the ISS sale will allow Redmond to focus on the part of Greenfield it plans to keep, as well as its Ciao comparison shopping business, in a move to aid its European commercial search strategy.
Microsoft is acquiring Greenfield for $486 million. Financial terms of the ZM Capital deal were not disclosed.
Although many of the results of J.D. Power and Associates' annual poll of digital camera purchasers aren't surprising, some stuff just doesn't add up.
The results, which were released Thursday, sent me searching its site for a description of the survey and rating methodology. But I couldn't find one.
For example, Digital SLRs: Nikon and Canon are, unsurprisingly, rated best among the 8,000 people polled. But Nikon's ratings in the 4 categories--picture quality, performance, operation, and appearance--are 3, 5, 5, and 4 dots, respectively. Canon's are 4, 3, 3, 2. Yet both get 5 dots overall.
So if the overall rating is from a survey, people are perceiving the cameras as more than the sum of their parts (which actually makes sense). But if the overall score is based on a mashup of the subratings, then J.D. Power needs a little more transparency than: "Please note that J.D. Power Consumer Center Ratings may not include all information used to determine J.D. Power and Associates awards."
Poor Olympus, Pentax and Sony's ratings in all but appearance are 2 dots; 3 dots means "about average," but 2 dots means "the rest." So what does 1 dot mean?
Then take the Premium Point-and-Shoot category, which is ruled by the Canon G series and the Panasonic TZ series. However, this category throws in such disparate subcategories as megazooms (Canon S and SX series, Cyber-shot H series, Olympus SP series, Kodak Z series) and regular old expensive compacts (Canon SD series, Panasonic FZ series) with the enthusiast cameras.
Based on the ratings, Panasonic beats all for megazooms and Canon's SD are the favored expensive compacts. But the surveyed indicated that what they liked most about the Canon SD is its appearance; everything I've heard from people says the opposite (they love the photo quality and performance but just tolerate its looks).
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