Twitter Users Take a Bite Out of Apple iPad

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Attensity™ Group, the leader in business user applications that generate value from unstructured data, has released its analysis of public reaction in Twitter to the hotly anticipated launch of the Apple iPad™.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100202/SF47867)

Using Attensity Analyze for VOC (http://www.attensity.com/en/Applications-and-Services/Applications/Voice-of-the-Customer/Voice-of-the-Customer-Index.html), part of Attensity's semantic analysis application suite, a total of 55,000 discussion-oriented messages, or "tweets," were pulled from Twitter and then analyzed. Twenty thousand tweets were pulled in the two hours prior to the January 27 event; another 20,000 two hours post-announcement; and an additional 15,000 four days later.

Before the announcement, at least 50 percent of tweets expressed positive sentiment towards the iPad. That number jumped to 71 percent in the two hours following the announcement, with extremely negative sentiment disappearing to a statistically negligible one percent.

Four days later, positive sentiment still weighed supreme, at 69 percent -- good news for Apple. The five issues most commonly discussed in those positive tweets were the iPad's applications, screen quality and keyboard; its comparison to the iPhone; and its potential as an Amazon Kindle™ "killer."

For those people who disliked or even hated the iPad, the reasons most often expressed are related to its lack of support for Adobe® Flash technology; lack of a camera; inability for the user to replace the battery himself; or that the person already has an iPhone or Kindle and thus views the iPad as redundant.

The analysis is described in more detail, with multiple pie charts, on Attensity's web site:

http://www.attensity.com/en/Company/Blog/2010/02/iPad.php

Additional Resources

• Read other examples from Attensity of trend analysis in social media: http://www.attensity.com/en/News-and-Events/Resource-Center/index.html
• Read Attensity's whitepaper, "Monitor, Analyze, Respond and Repurpose: Toward a more effective utilization of social media." http://www.attensity.com/en/Collaterals/Attensity_SocialMedia_WP080609.pdf

About Attensity Group

Attensity Group provides software applications based on Web 3.0 semantic technologies to find, understand, and use information trapped in unstructured text to drive critical decision-making. The comprehensive suite of applications address collective intelligence in social media and forums; the voice of the customer in surveys and emails; customer response management; e-services; research and discovery; risk and compliance; and intelligence analysis. With more than 500 installations worldwide, Attensity Group's award-winning software is used by large government agencies and such innovative enterprises as Airbus, Charles Schwab, Bosch, JetBlue, Nokia Siemens Networks, Royal Bank of Canada, Travelocity and Vodafone. Organizations are better able to track trends, identify patterns, detect anomalies, reduce threats, and seize opportunities to improve customer satisfaction and retention. Attensity Group operates in the EMEA region as Empolis. More information is at http://www.attensity.com/en/Company/Blog/index.php, http://twitter.com/attensity and http://www.facebook.com/attensity.

©2010 Attensity Group. Attensity is a trademark of Attensity Group in the United States and/or other countries. Other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Information is subject to change without notice. All rights reserved.

SOURCE Attensity Group