Social media data company Rapleafrecently investigated the profiles of users who “fanned” the iPad on Facebook in order to get a better sense of the type of users who are interested in Apple’s upcoming slate device. After analyzing the top three Facebook pages and their respective fanbases, Rapleaf discovered that there were some common themes among these users. The prospective iPad buyers on Facebook are young – much younger than the overall Facebook population, in fact. They’re also fairly social, with nearly a third of the fans having over 300 friends. And finally, iPad fans are also very interested in other pop culture activities and themes including various celebs, brands and internet memes.
To make these determinations, Rapleaf looked at the top three iPad fan pages on Facebook. At the time of their study, these were: The iPad (#1) (69,293 fans), The iPad (#2) (23,637 fans) and The iPad (#3) (5,009 fans).
There weren’t any major variations in gender differences among the iPad fans. Although the second page skewed more female and the third page skewed more male, the overall numbers balanced out to a fairly even split.
However, when Rapleaf delved into the ages of the fans, they discovered that iPad fans were a lot younger than your typical Facebook user. While 61% of the U.S. Facebook market is under 35, nearly 50% of the iPad fans were between 18 and 25. You can see the differences between the pages and Facebook in general (U.S. only) plotted on the chart here.
Apple iPad fans are also rather social, with 33% having over 300 friends on Facebook and 8% with more than 500 friends. Additionally, perhaps due to their age, a lot of the iPad fans were fans of other pop culture themes like favorite celebs, brands and memes. By analyzing the top 100 other fan pages of these users, Rapleaf discovered interests like Starbucks, Megan Fox, Coca-Cola, Michael Jackson, YouTube, Will Smith, Twilight, Lady Gaga, pizza, and other various Facebook “memes” like “Pants on the Ground,” random laughter, “I need a vacation” and “I really hate slow computers,” (the last being a problem the iPad hopes to solve, incidentally).
iPad for the Young?
What does this tell us about the market for Apple’s new device? Mainly that it has a lot of youth appeal, apparently. While some have predicted the iPad is the sort of computer that your “mom” will use – implying that the iPad is a sort of computer for non-computer users – it appears that “mom” isn’t actually a top demographic among the iPad’s Facebook fans. But then again, you can’t read too much into that finding – after all, “mom” (the older Facebook user) may not even know how to fan things on Facebook yet or she may simply not be interested in doing so. But the study does at least solidify that there is quite a bit of iPad interest out there among the youngest tech users, something that bodes well for the device’s adoption.