Kids want an iPad for Christmas – and nothing else

Listen up, parents. Your kids want an iPad. Don’t be swayed by the Microsoft Surface commercials or the Nintendo Wii U chatter. No matter whether your child is 6 or 16, the iPad is at the top of Christmas wish lists for 2012, a new survey has it. According to Nielsen Wire, the top four out of five most-wanted gifts for children and teens bear an Apple logo.

Even more intriguing are the changes in what Apple products are wanted this holiday season versus last year. If anything, the trend can be summed-up in one word: tablet…

The survey found 48 percent of kids 6-12 had an iPad at the top of their lists. Not just any iPad, either.

Kids, even six-year-olds, are tech saavy and haven’t fallen for Apple’s advertising blitz surrounding the iPad mini. They know the score and read the tech news: the full-size iPad 4 is what’s hot with young children and tweens.

Nintendo’s Wii U – designed to spark some life into the aging Wii game console – is the #2 choice for this age category, pulling in 39 percent of the votes.

What’s interesting, though, is that the tween tech titan – the iPod touch – has fallen to third place in the holiday survey. Yes, the mini is smaller and a better fit for a young person’s hand, but, c’mon, where’s the Retina display, right?

The iPod touch was always viewed as the gateway drug to an iPhone.

Your mom had one, your big brother or sister had one and you wanted it, too. However, the iPhone has lost some of its exclusivity, some of its cache among the younger folks.

Why?

What’s your older sibling have – or can’t stop whining about?

Yes, an iPad.

Nothing makes kids want something more than when someone else has it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGMsT4qNA-c

Speaking of which, Nielsen found the iPad was desired by 21 percent of teens 13 and up. Just thirteen percent wanted the iPad mini. Microsoft’s Surface at three percent tied with the PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo DS.

Like, really, a DS?

Along with the iPad, the top five most wanted gadgets by teens included a computer (19 percent), a tablet other than the iPad (18 percent), the Wii U and the iPhone.

Apparently, the iPhone is not the teen magnet it once was. Most likely, the teens who wanted an iPhone already have one and have moved on.

In terms of smartphones, while fourteen percent of teens surveyed want an iPhone for Christmas, just 11 percent are hoping for an Android phone while only nine percent of teens surveyed hope to find a Samsung Galaxy Note or Tab under the tree.

What’s that you say?

Liked that toddler clip?

Here, another one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3tam2Pwyqk

So, I know where I’ll be shopping for my kids – and it won’t be the toy store.

Just thank goodness Apple doesn’t make cars.