In the wake of a spectacularly successful release of Apple’s iPhone 6 — and in anticipation of the launch of the Apple Watch — Adobe queried some 1,000 US consumers about their video viewing habits and preferences. The result? Adobe found that the iPhone 6 has fueled a surge of online video viewing.
The survey, conducted in February by Adobe Digital Index, looked at how people viewed various forms of video on their iOS smartphones and tablets.
In addition, Adobe shared its insights on market share for iOS devices, wearables like the Apple Watch and various IoT devices and other related topics.
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Adobe’s conclusions concerning Apple include the following.
Digital video is booming and will continue to rise. No surprise there. Adobe found that following the introduction of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus (Apple moved a hefty 74.5 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus devices in the fourth quarter of 2014), digital video viewing nearly doubled on smartphones, year-over- year.
It also singled out the iPad as the most popular device for streaming TV programs, with a 29 percent share of cable subscription videos viewed in the fourth quarter of 2014. The Roku, said Adobe, is the most popular device for streaming such entertainment.
At the same time, Adobe found that the Apple TV and similar TV-connected devices decreased the iOS share of video viewing. While overall viewing rose some 50 percent overall on gaming or other platforms over last year, the share of that content viewed on iOS dropped 21 percent in that time frame.
That’s because people like larger screens. Comparing the first quarters of last year and this year, Adobe found that overall, regardless of brand, smartphone viewers spent 24 percent more time per month viewing video.
And speaking of big screens, while the Mac accounts for just 13 percent of the overall desktop market, the platform commands a whopping 40 percent share of desktop video viewing.
Other interesting tidbits from Adobe’s research include the following.
Watch out
People are drooling over the Apple’s smartwatch. It’s not here quite yet, but 27 percent of survey respondents who don’t currently own a smartwatch say they are likely to buy one in next six months, and of those, 67 percent say they are likely to buy the Apple Watch.
“We think that Apple Watch might take off a little bit more than one would think,” said author Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst of Adobe Digital Index, in the report.
Further, the author noted, “There are some use cases for it that are kind of helpful, and one of them is that with the larger screen smartphone, it’s actually less convenient to pull it out all the time. The Apple Watch is a hands-free and much less conspicuous way to look at my emails, my text messages, instant messages, Facebook Messenger, maybe a little bit of my social media postings on my wrist without taking this big phone out of wherever I put it.
“So the fact is that as the smartphone screen size gets bigger, then there’s an alternative use case for this wearable—that if it’s synchronized together with the smartphone, it makes for a good compatible couple of devices.”
The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus fuel better mobile video completion rates. The bigger, faster, updated iPhones offer a more pleasing video experience, and thus, Adobe measured a seven percent quarterly boost in people watching a video to the midway point while smartphone viewers spent 24 percent more time per visit viewing videos.
But, there’s strong competition in the mobile space now because of the new, larger iPhones. Thus, Adobe found tablet share down 5.5 percent — from 9.1 to 8.6 percent in the US — with iPad-based site visits taking the bigger hit — from 7.2 percent to 6.6 percent — totaling an a 8.3 percent decline in browsing. “Phablets are ultimately relegating tablets to niche uses,” Gaffney said.
Nonetheless, the iPad is still rad. OK, here Adobe dips into its large stash of in-house data to conclude that despite the hit from the larger iPhones, the iPad share of tablet browsing is still over 70 percent in more than half of 40 countries measured by Adobe over time. It reached 77 percent in the US and 81 percent in China.
So what about Android? News is positive there, too. Adobe found the share of sports viewing on Android devices doubled to 21 percent from 11 percent this year. Not only that, but the frequency of viewing content from an Android device grew faster than other mobile platforms, up 37 percent in the same time frame.
Home Electronics are huge for the burgeoning IoT market. The top three IoT devices consumers want to interact with are home electronics, home appliances such as a fridge, oven and thermostat and cars.
Mobile Wallets are successful. Nearly half of surveyed consumers used a mobile wallet, or plan to, within the next six months.
There’s more industry specific marketing and data in Adobe’s report, with information both from the recent US survey and Adobe’s worldwide accumulated research. Check out Adobe’s blog for all of its conclusions.
➤ ADI: M&E Master Of Mobile Domain, Apple Dominates Video [Adobe]
Image credits: Andrey_Popov / Shutterstock.com / Apple
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