iPad 2 tops our all-time list of tablets, phablets and smartphones - will the iPad Air better it?

Here's another snippet from our series of Harris Buzz reports, this time looking at our all-time list of excitement for tablets, phablets and smartphones.

Apple dominates the top of the list, but interesting to see the rather old (but still available) iPad 2 ahead of more recent releases. Maybe Apple needs to do a little more than release a quicker, thinner iteration, as I suggested in a previous post.

We'll be measuring the buzz for the new iPad Air in the next edition of Harris Buzz, released later this month.

	% of GB public aged 16-64 excited about this
iPad 2	29%
iPhone 5	25%
The New iPad	25%
iPad	24%
iPhone 5S/5C	21%
4G UK	21%
iPhone 4S	21%
Samsung Galaxy S4 unveil	20%
Windows 7 Mobile	20%
iPhone 4	20%
iPad Mini	19%
Kindle Fire UK	19%
Samsung Galaxy Note	19%
UK’s first 4G network	19%
Amazon Kindle Fire	19%
Nexus 7 tablet	18%
Samsung Galaxy S3	18%
Nokia E7 smartphone	17%
Sony Ericsson Xperia Play	17%
Microsoft Surface preview	16%
BlackBerry PlayBook	16%
Samsung Galaxy Tab	16%
Samsung Galaxy Note 3	15%
HTC One launched	15%
Apple iCloud	15%
Nokia/MS partnership	15%
Samsung smartwatch	13%
Apple iOS7	13%
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 unveiled	13%
Microsoft Surface launched	13%
Apple Siri software	13%
Samsung curved screens	12%
Tesco launch Hudl tablet	12%
BlackBerry 10 revealed	12%
Optimus 4X HD	12%
Nokia Lumia launched	12%
HP TouchPad	12%
Motorola Xoom	12%
Xperia Z1 goes on sale	11%
Nexus 4	11%
HTC One unveiled	11%
Nexus 10	11%
HTC Flyer tablet	11%
Microsoft buy Nokia	10%
Lumia 920	10%
Roaming costs capped	10%
Nokia 808 revealed	10%
KitKat Android	9%
Nokia Lumia 925 slim	8%
Sony unveils Xperia Z	8%
Sony "touchless" display	8%
Nokia Lumia 1020	7%
HP Slate 7	6%
Dell Streak	6%
Huawei Ascend P6	5%
O2 Tu Go app	5%

GTA V tops our all-time Excitement Buzz list for video games

Rockstar's mega-selling GTA V tops our all-time excitement list from the last 33 monthly Harris Buzz reports.

We regularly include the latest video games in our series of Harris Buzz reports - it's never an exhaustive measure of what's been released but we do our best to include the latest and greatest. And all the games are measured as close to the release date as possible.

The table below shows all the games (and gaming news) we've included over the last 3 years.

Due for release later this month, the next issue of Buzz includes Call of Duty: Ghosts and Battlefield 4. Will these topple GTA V from the top of the list?

Harris Buzz Excitement	% of GB public aged 16-64 excited about this
Grand Theft Auto V	22%	Rockstar
Sony PS4 announced	22%	Sony
Nintendo 3DS	22%	Nintendo
Xbox Kinect	22%	Xbox
Xbox One announced	21%	Xbox
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3	21%	Activision
Call of Duty: Black Ops	20%	Activision
PlayStation Vita released	19%	Sony
PlayStation 4 price £349	18%	Sony
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2	18%	Activision
FIFA 14	16%	EA
FIFA 13	16%	EA
Nintendo unveil ‘Wii U’	16%	Nintendo
LA Noire	16%	Rockstar
Portal 2	16%	Valve
Nintendo Wii U launch	15%	Nintendo
Assassin’s Creed III	15%	Ubisoft
Resident Evil: Retribution	15%	Capcom
Wii U console revealed	15%	Nintendo
Battlefield 3	15%	EA
Nintendo  ‘3DS XL’ released	14%	Nintendo
Kinect: Star Wars	14%	Xbox
Resident Evil 6 trailer	14%	Capcom
Kinect for PCs launch	14%	Xbox
Fable III	14%	Lionhead
PlayStation Vita unveiled	14%	Sony
Tomb Raider	13%	Square Enix
Need for Speed	13%	EA
Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games	13%	SEGA
Game chain bust	13%	Game
Batman: Arkham City	13%	Warner Bros Interactive
Crysis 2	13%	EA
Halo: Reach	13%	Bungie/Microsoft
Xbox One price £429	12%	Xbox
Halo 4	12%	Microsoft
Hitman: Absolution	12%	Square Enix
Resident Evil 6	12%	Capcom
Microsoft SmartGlass revealed	12%	Xbox
Mass Effect 3	12%	EA
FIFA 12	12%	EA
Homefront	12%	THQ
Microsoft Xbox digital DRM U-turn	11%	Xbox
BioShock Infinite	11%	2K
SimCity	11%	EA
Far Cry 3	11%	Ubisoft
Sleeping Dogs	11%	Square Enix
Max Payne 3	11%	Rockstar
Fallout: New Vegas	11%	Bethesda
Star Trek	10%	Namco Bandai
New Super Mario game	10%	Nintendo
PlayStation 3 slimmed	10%	Sony
Darksiders ll	10%	THQ
Guild Wars 2	10%	NCSoft
Microsoft Xbox Music launched	10%	Xbox
Gears of War 3	10%	Microsoft
Sony Move launched	10%	Sony
Nintendo 2DS launched	9%	Nintendo
The Last of Us	9%	Naughty Dog
Defiance series/game	9%	Trion
Gears of War: Judgement	9%	Microsoft
Crysis 3	9%	EA
Football Manager ‘13	9%	SEGA
Madden NFL 13	9%	EA
Diablo 3	9%	Blizzard
Rage	9%	Bethesda
Sonic the Hedgehog 20 years anniversary	9%	SEGA
Steam (gaming service)	9%	Valve
Saints Row IV	8%	Deep Silver
Rayman Legends	8%	Ubisoft
Ouya console unveiled	8%	Ouya
NBA 2K14	7%	2K
Total War: Rome II	7%	SEGA
Marvel Heroes	7%	Secret Identity
Devil May Care	7%	Capcom
Nintendo Land	7%	Nintendo
PS All-Star Battle Royale	7%	Sony
Dishonored	7%	Bethesda
Deus Ex: Human Revolution	7%	Square Enix
Grid 2	6%	Codemasters
nVidia game device unveiled	6%	nVidia
Disney Infinity	5%	Disney
Remember Me	5%	Capcom
NBA 2K13	5%	2K
Company of Heroes 2	4%	SEGA
World of Warcraft free	4%	Blizzard
Painkiller: Hell & Damnation	4%	Nordic

FIFA 14, Gravity and Hudl in latest Harris Buzz research

The October edition of Harris Buzz is out, our monthly look at what's hot in entertainment and technology polling a national representative Harris Poll sample.

The full report is available for free - click here.

This is what we measured this month:

• BBC to launch BBC One +1 channel
• BBC unveil the next-generation iPlayer
• FIFA 14 video game
• Gravity movie
• Homeland Series 3 begins on Channel 4
• LOVEFiLM makes available exclusive drama series, Copper
• NBA 2K14 video game
• Runner Runner movie
• Samsung launches smartphone with curved screen
• Sony Xperia Z1 goes on sale
• Tesco launches Hudl tablet
• Wuaki.tv launches in the UK
• YouTube launches its first Music Awards

Why has Apple become so BORING?

I'm a geek. I'm the type of person that used to livestream Apple events to see what goodies lay in wait, even though I'm far from an Apple fanboi and the only product I own is an ageing iPod touch.

They were genuinely interesting viewing for a geek as Apple continued to push boundaries and surprise the viewer.


I've now stopped bothering watching Apple events.

Yesterday's event gave me even more reason to skip following them. A new 5S with, surprise surprise, a new chip and a fingerprint reader. Plus a "cheaper" iPhone 5C. I'm yawning as I write this. It's a big bunch of meh. The iOS7 update is an improvement but, in my humble opinion, the UI has been surpassed by Android years ago for usability and eye-candy.

Don't get me wrong, I think having a fingerprint reader is both neat and addresses a real problem with mobile security and privacy. But it's not something that produces any kind of emotional response whatsoever. Nor are chip updates, which are entirely expected.

Maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps a cheaper (but still very expensive) iPhone 5C will tear open new markets both here and overseas. Who needs surprise and innovation if the profits pile up. We'll be testing this in new research - the new iPhone 5S and 5C will appear in next month's Harris Buzz report, which measures the familiarity and excitement of new technology and entertainment releases.

And maybe I'm wrong and the iPhone 6 and upcoming iWatch will be revolutionary and I'll get back to thinking that Apple really is the innovative company I thought it once was.

Two new Buzz reports coming soon

I'm linking to two new Harris Buzz reports.

As usual we look at the familiarity and excitement of the latest announcements and releases across technology and entertainment.

Here's what we measured:

Xbox One vs. PlayStation 4 research - the battle commences!

The June edition of Harris Buzz is now available - you can download the full free report here.

This latest edition allows us to compare the buzz for the Xbox One announcement/reveal with that measured for the PlayStation 4 event earlier in February.

As ever, our Harris Buzz reports look at the awareness, discussion level and excitement buzz for the latest news and releases in entertainment and technology.

As such it gives us the earliest preview of which of the two titans are most likely to succeed in the battle for the next generation. I'll leave Wii U aside as my earlier post suggests it is rather unlikely to be a contender.

So what's the story? How do Xbox One and PlayStation 4 compare for buzz?

Things couldn't be closer. Well they could, but statistically speaking a difference of 1% here or there is completely insignificant.

The two announcements are, in other words, completely tied for the level of Buzz created.

Now bear in mind this research was conducted directly after each console's announcement. So the data for PlayStation 4 comes from our February/March edition of Buzz. But this is the fairest comparison as we're looking here at the Buzz created directly after announcement.

Another thing to bear in mind is this fieldwork was conducted prior to E3, where even more details of the games were revealed (and we actually saw the PS4 console for the first time). We'll be measuring the E3 news in our next edition of Buzz, which will be available in July.

We'll continue to monitor the next gen battle. Will the PS4's lower price be a determining factor in which will be crowned king of the next gen? What about the "always on" connection for Xbox One and the restrictions for used games. What about using a Kinect to control a home media centre? Questions, questions.

As things stand, as far as the public is concerned, the battle is too close to call.

Iron Man 3 rocks, Facebook Home sort of flops - latest research

Iron Man 3 gets a massive thumbs up from respondents in new research conducted.

On the other hand, Facebook Home is found to be more of a damp squib.

All this is contained in the May Harris Buzz report. The full report is available to download here for free.



As usual it's a national poll of GB respondents where we ask their awareness and excitement of the latest releases in entertainment and technology.

Iron Man 3 and the release of Facebook Home, the skin for smartphones, were among the news stories we covered in the May report.

Here's a full list of what we covered in the May report:

·         Daft Punk’s new song breaks Spotify record and charts at Number 1

·         Defiance TV series and video game

·         Evil Dead movie (2013 re-make)

·         Facebook Home platform launched for smartphones

·         HP Slate 7 launched (Android tablet device)

·         Iron Man 3 movie

·         LOVEFiLM set to pilot TV series online based on public vote

·         Oblivion movie

·         Olympus Has Fallen movie

·         Psy releases ‘Gentleman’ single, follow up to ‘Gangnam style’

·         Reddit issues apology over Boston bombings “witch-hunt”

·         Star Trek video game

·         Twitter launch #Music service

Iron Man 3 did exceptionally well. We've tested 250 news stories, film releases, games and device launches over the last few years.

For our Excitement Buzz measure, Iron Man 3 ranks in 5th place in our all-time list.

This is really good.

You can see where Iron Man 3 ranks in our all time top 10 for Excitement Buzz on the left.



It's not surprising to see Iron Man 3 doing so well given it was reported recently that it became the fifth top-grossing film of all time, according to online movie tracker Box Office Mojo.

And what about Facebook Home. There's been mixed reviews for it since Mark Zuckerberg launched it April. It's been downloaded for Android over half a million times. But an average user rating of 2.3 out of 5 on Google Play tells its own story.

And we see equally disappointing results in our May Buzz report. Only 10% of the GB public tell us they were excited by the launch of Facebook Home. It's early days for Facebook Home. There is a dire need for Facebook to capitalise on the shift to mobile so it should be seen as the start of an evolution for them.

The full PDF report can be found here. And links to all prior monthly Buzz reports can be found here.

Our next Buzz report will include the reaction to the Xbox One reveal, Star Trek Into Darkness, Daft Punk's Random Access Memories and Grid 2.

Samsung Galaxy S4 buzz significantly trailing iPhone 5

The latest Harris Buzz report for April is now available. See here to download the full, free report.

This is now our 27th edition of Buzz. Each month we take a national poll via the Harris PollTM Omnibus and test awareness and excitement of the latest news stories and releases in technology and entertainment.

One of the most interesting releases we tested in the latest report is the unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy S4.

We can take a look at whether it's created the same sort of Buzz as other flagship phones, including the iPhone 5.




Let's take a look at where Samsung's new flagship smartphone ranks for excitement against some other notable smartphone and tablet releases over the last couple of years...

Samsung are the leading smartphone seller right now and it launched the Galaxy S4 with a heap of razzmatazz. We see its Excitement Buzz towards the top of the list but not right at the top. iPhone 5's buzz at its time of release is significantly higher.

I thought the S4 announcement was significant in that I can't recall a launch from any other smartphone/tablet company that could rival it for the level of anticipation it generated, aside from iPhone and iPad announcements. And the launch could hardly be described as subtle - it was a huge fanfare event from Samsung.

While Samsung is substantially outselling Apple in the smartphone business, we do see however that it still needs to catch up for Excitement in the general market. Bear in mind this is national polling, not polling of smartphone purchase intenders. Apple has now had a solid five years or so of fanfare events to launch its mobile products, so Samsung needs to continue to generate the same sort of buzz for its launches in the future.

The full report, which also includes a host of other launches and news stories (see below) can be downloaded for free by clicking on this link.

And here is the full list of stuff we included in the April Buzz report:

·         BBC Television Centre closes with Madness concert

·         BBC to premiere a new Peter Kay sitcom on BBC iPlayer

·         BioShock Infinite video game

·         Comic Relief 2013 raises record £75m

·         The Croods movie

·         Dell company receives bid for a takeover

·         Gears of War: Judgement video game

·         New David Bowie album ‘The Next Day’

·         O2 launches ‘Tu Go’ app to challenge Skype

·         Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone unveiled

·         SimCity video game

·         Trance movie

·         Yahoo! buys teenager’s Summly mobile app for £18m

PlayStation 4 announcement - measuring the Buzz

Harris' latest Buzz report is out.

It includes the Buzz for Sony's announcement in late February of PlayStation 4.

The full report is free and you can see it here.

The results are more than decent, but not spectacular.

But Sony's announcement does easily beat the ratings achieved by the Wii U launch, and bear in mind we're comparing an announcement for a launch with an actual launch.

As always, released monthly, Harris Buzz measures, awareness and levels of discussion and excitement of the latest releases in news in entertainment and technology using a nationally representative Harris Poll of GB aged 16-64.

Sony's announcement was late February and the fieldwork for this edition of Buzz was early March, so just about perfect timing to appreciate the Buzz for it.

Let's take a look at the Buzz for "Sony announce PlayStation 4 games console"...

Things look a little better when we cut these Buzz ratings by age. Among 16-24s the levels of awareness, discussion and excitement are 67%, 50% and 42% respectively.

To put the results into context we can compare to our all-time list. We've been measuring news and product releases for over 2 years now, so we have lots of things to compare with.

Focusing on Excitement Buzz, here's a selection of benchmarks (you can see everything in the full report):

Bear in mind I am only showing a selection of the 200+ items we've looked at in our series of Buzz reports over the last couple of years. 

The PS4 launch ranks in the top quartile of everything we've tested for excitement when we compare it to everything we've tested to date. In the selected list above you can see it doesn't get close to our top-ranked event (London 2012 opening), but it'll take something exceptional to beat that benchmark. 

It's fairer to compare it to other high profile events - and you can see it's on a par with some Apple launches. The most interesting benchmarks are with Kinect, Vita and Wii U. Bear in mind though we are comparing an announcement of a launch to actual launches. 

It must be pleasing for Sony to see their announcement well ahead of the Wii U launch for excitement. And I've blogged before about how disappointing the Wii U launch has gone.

So, good solid results for PlayStation 4. Not spectacular results but a good foundation from which to build up to its launch later this year.

We'll be measuring PlayStation 4 again as more significant news comes out. And of course we will be measuring the Xbox announcement in May.

All of the news stories we tested in the latest edition of Buzz are listed below (and you can click here to get the full report).

2013 Brits music awards

2013 Oscars awards

BT agrees to buy ESPN’s UK TV channels to broaden its sports coverage

Cloud Atlas movie

Crysis 3 video game

Google unveil a touchscreen “Chromebook Pixel” premium laptop

HTC unveil HTC One flagship smartphone

One Direction hit number 1 with Comic Relief single “One Way or Another”

Samsung unveil new Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet

Sky buys O2’s broadband/fixed line business

Sony announce PlayStation 4 games console

The new Tomb Raider video game

Wreck-It Ralph movie

SimCity and Tomb Raider FAIL

Two major games, both much anticipated, were released this week: the reboot of Tomb Raider and SimCity.

We'll have both of them measured in our upcoming Harris Buzz report, ready in a couple of weeks time.

But both titles have had major launch issues.

SimCity has taken one hell of a panning, not from critics but with gamers annoyed with EA insistence on an always-on online DRM solution (for what is basically an offline single player game). A pathetic user metacritic score of 1.6/10.0 at the time of writing is an indication of people's frustration. An always-on DRM you need only via Origin is annoying enough for many, but EA's servers unable to cope with demand is an own goal, as you can see below. Amazon even suspended its sales.

Tomb Raider looks pretty lush. Well that's what I've seen on YouTube at least because I can't play it on Steam using my i7/680GTX. A patch and a new driver is needed (although there is a registry fix for those who don't want to wait).

This is my experience of Tomb Raider to date:

All of this makes me wonder why I ever bother pre-ordering PC games.

Wait for a few months, get all the patches and fixes and get it for half the price and zero frustration.

All I need to do that is to acquire some patience.


UPDATE: Tomb Raider patch released, all okay. EA apologises, offers free game.

HMV closures gets the public talking in latest Buzz survey

Our latest Harris Buzz report is out, the 25th edition. Click here to get your free copy of the full report.

Among all the things we tested, the thing that has got most people talking is the news that HMV stores are going into administration.

Nearly 9 in 10 of the GB general public told us they were aware of the news and nearly 3 in 5 people said they have discussed it with their friends or family.

This makes it one of the most buzziest things for discussion we've ever covered in our 25 series of Buzz reports stretching back to 2010.

Take a look at the all-time Discussion Buzz list (top 25):

Top 25 Discussion Buzz % of GB public who have discussed...
London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony	75%
Jimmy Savile scandal	72%
Phone hacking scandal	66%
EURO 2012 final	61%
Skyfall movie	60%
HMV stores go into administration	58%
Andy Murray loses Wimbledon final	57%
Final Harry Potter film	55%
Stars at Jubilee concert	54%
2012 Olympic torch relay	54%
Steve Jobs dies	52%
The Voice new series	51%
Britain’s Got Talent new series	50%
Michael Jackson’s doctor guilty	48%
London 2012 tickets on sale	47%
Blockbuster administration	47%
BlackBerry outage	46%
The Hobbit movie	46%
Felix Baumgartner skydive	45%
Brits 2012	44%
Jimmy Carr tax story	43%
PS3 accounts hacked	43%
3D TV sets	42%
Fifty Shades of Grey	41%
Government email spying	41%

You'll also see that Blockbuster facing the same fate also gets into our Top 25 all-time list.

It's not surprising to see HMV get so high in our list. While so many of us have stopped using the High Street for our music, games and videos (the reason for its demise), it was really important for many of us a while back, before we migrated.

And there is a significant proportion of the population who haven't yet migrated to Amazon, Apple, Spotify et al who now have very few choices left in High Street to get their physical entertainment.

Yes, there are plenty of ways of getting entertainment, more than ever before, but if you're someone who isn't happy with shopping online and/or using digital services, then it's a sad day indeed to see such an important chain go under.

The whole list of things we covered in Buzz#25 is listed below. Click here to get the full, free report.

BlackBerry 10 smartphone revealed

Blockbuster stores go into administration

DMC: Devil May Cry video game

Facebook announce ‘Graph search’

HMV stores go into administration

JJ Abrams announced as Director of new Star Wars film

Lincoln movie

News International wins rights to show Premier League highlights on internet and mobile devices

Nokia targets Spotify with launch of premium Nokia Music+ service

Rapid rise of ‘Snapchat’ mobile app for sharing images or videos that disappear after a few seconds

Sony unveils Xperia Z, ‘thinnest’ tablet

Twitter launches ‘Vine’ micro-video sharing service

Zero Dark Thirty movie