Prometheus, Diablo 3, Wii U, SmartGlass, Surface and EURO 2012 all in the upcoming Buzz report

Here's a teaser for what we're including in the upcoming Harris Buzz report from Harris Interactive. It will be out in a week or so and as usual I'll post a link to the full, free report here.

Here's what we're asking the GB general public about:

• Prometheus movie
• Rock of Ages movie
• Diablo 3 video game
• Wii U gaming console revealed
• Microsoft announce Xbox Music streaming service
• Microsoft announce SmartGlass for smartphones and tablets to work in union with an Xbox console
• Apple reveal a new line of MacBook computers
• ATMs may soon operate without a card, using a smartphone instead
• Stone Roses band reunite and tour for the first time in 16 years
• Stars perform at Jubilee concert
• EURO 2012 football tournament
• Flame internet virus
• Internet "trolls"  to be identified under new measures

I will post a link to the report when it's ready on this blog. All the previous Buzz reports (all 15 of them) can be found here.

Report on digital consumers, privacy, online security & protection - on behalf of Kaspersky Lab

My colleagues at Harris worked with Kaspersky Lab, the online security firm, to produce a rich, multi-country report on modern digital life, devices, privacy and security.

Kaspersky Lab's full report is available - click here to download the pdf.

Brand Buzz - BBC, ITV, Sky, Facebook, Google & Twitter

A brand new report from Harris Interactive for you. It's our very first report in our new series of "Brand Buzz" reports. It's like our normal Buzz report, but instead we focus squarely on brands. 

Click here to view or download the full free report.

For this new report, we look at six media and tech giants: BBC, ITV, Sky, Facebook, Twitter and Google.

Using the Harris Poll platform, we ask a nationally representative sample of the GB public three simple questions:

1. Awareness, familiarity and usage
2. Their emotional connection to each brand
3. The degree to think they think the brand is on the way up/unchanged/in decline

We plan to do this monthly, taking six new brands each time. Over time we'll build some powerful benchmarks. I'll post a link to next month's edition on this blog when it's ready. Next month we'll be looking at mobile brands including iPhone and Android.

Here's a few snippets of the results from the first edition:

What do we see from the data above?

• While BBC is among the country's most loved brands, it isn't really seen as very innovative by the general public or among its users (which is just about everyone)
• Sky, Facebook and Twitter attract a lot of negative opinions from the general public, but this is almost exclusively coming from non-users
• Facebook, Twitter and Google are the three brands with the highest "buzz", that they're perceived as ahead and really going places

When we do this monthly, we'll add more and more brands, building up a great store of information of what the general public thinks of brands in the entertainment, media, technology and telecoms space.

Click here to view or download the full, free report.

Olympic Torch Relay pips Samsung Galaxy S3 in latest Buzz report

Our latest Buzz report is available to download - for free. Click here to get it.

Of all the things we measured this month we see the Olympic Torch relay, Men In Black 3 and the new flagship Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone heading the list of things that are most exciting the British general public.

A new Buzz report will be released next month and, as usual, I'll post a link here.

Google research - ranking the familiarity of recent Google initiatives

Google do a lot of stuff. Some things work, some don't. Google+ and Google TV may be struggling to meet expectations, but there's no doubt that the company is raking it in from search and they were recently proclaimed the world's third most valuable brand.

It's worth taking a look then at how all their recent initiatives cut through to the Great British public.

The graph below is taken from Harris Interactive's series of Buzz reports. These are monthly polls using the Harris Poll Online Omnibus in GB, nationally representative of 16-64 year olds. Note that these are results  of polls at the time of each initiative's release (or shortly after) - there's a table at the bottom of this post showing the polling dates.

There's a big spread of familiarity here with failed projects like Google Buzz towards the bottom. It's interesting that their recent and major change to its privacy policy is the thing that more people in the country have heard about. Google+ and Chrome do well, and it's interesting to see that Chrome has now become the world's most popular browser. Google+ is another matter, perhaps weighed down by high expectation.

The one that stands out most for me is Google TV. As many people with connected TVs hardly bother with the function, it's a space where a giant like Google can make the running and create the demand with a beautiful service. It's yet to filter through. Perhaps Apple will do it instead with the much rumoured release of the Apple iTV.

For those who want to know, we polled the public at the time of (or shortly after) each release. Here's a table showing the launch and polling dates.

Get in touch if you want to know more. And see here for all the Buzz reports from which this data is collated. All are free to download.

Lumia, HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S3 and Men In Black 3 all in upcoming Buzz report

The latest Buzz report can be found here.

And here's a taster of what we're covering in next month's Buzz report (see full list below).

1.    Nokia Lumia smartphone launched in the UK

2.    HTC One smartphone launched in UK

3.    Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone unveiled

4.    Parliamentary committee report says Rupert Murdoch “not a fit person” to run a major international business

5.    Plan to mine asteroids for precious metals revealed

6.    O2 release a “mobile wallet” smartphone app to exchange money and pay for services by text message

7.    Men In Black 3 movie

8.    Facebook shares go on sale, valued over $100bn

9.    Google Drive cloud storage application is launched

10. The Digital Economy Act, the anti-piracy law, is delayed until 2014

11. Facebook launch an app store

12. Official Charts Company launch a chart of online music streams

13. Olympic torch relay starts its tour around the UK


I'll post a link on this blog when it's ready in a couple of weeks' time.

Avengers Assemble pipped by The Voice & BGT in latest Buzz report

The latest Buzz report can be downloaded for free here. For excitement, our list is topped by the talent shows The Voice and Britain's Got Talent, which appeal to a very broad demographic. Avengers Assemble comes in at third place of everything we tested this month.

See the previous post for the full list. And yet another new Buzz report will come out next month.

Project Glass, Titanic, MDNA, Avengers Assemble, Kindle Touch and more in the new Harris Buzz report coming soon

We're in the process of getting the May Harris Buzz report together.

As always, it's a market research study among 1000 GB consumers aged 16+ using the Harris Poll asking people's awareness and excitement of what's new in tech and entertainment.

Here's what we're covering in the May edition:

1.       UK government announce plans to “spy” on people’s emails and electronic communications

2.       Amazon Kindle Touch (the new Kindle with a touchscreen display)

3.       Game video-game store chain goes bust and is then rescued

4.       Facebook buys picture-app company Instagram for $1bn

5.       Britain’s Got Talent TV show on ITV

6.       The Voice TV show on BBC One

7.       New Madonna album, ‘MDNA’

8.       Titanic movie re-released in 3D

9.       The Hunger Games movie

10.   Avengers Assemble movie

11.   Max Payne 3 video game

12.   Kinect: Star Wars video game

13.   Google reveal Project Glass “augmented-reality” glasses

All previous editions can be found here for free. I'll post a link to the new edition on this blog next week.

iPad research - The New iPad tops our April Buzz poll

Here is a link to download the full free April Buzz report from Harris - click here. See the prior post to see everything we measured.

No surprise to see The New iPad topping our list for Excitement Buzz in April. 

The question is how well does the New iPad do compared to iPad 2 and the original iPad.

Let's take a look at the Buzz results. Below are the Buzz scores achieved by the three launches and in each case the fieldwork was conducted with nationally representative sample (base>1000) in GB at the time of each launch. We use the Harris Poll to do the surveys.

The New iPad, despite having the same familiarity level as iPad 2, doesn't quite achieve the same level of Discussion and Excitement Buzz.

All these scores are high and they remain the highest Buzz scores for any tablet we measured. We've yet to see any Android tablet match these scores. And while the scores for the New iPad trail that for iPad 2, it will do little to dent sales and Apple raking in the cash.

But perhaps Apple need a little more than a spanking new HD screen in their 4th generation iPad next year to push these Buzz even higher?

New iPad, Windows 8, Mass Effect 3 and lots more in the next edition of Buzz

As a teaser, this is what we're testing in the upcoming edition of Harris Buzz.

It should be released in a couple of weeks.

As with all other Buzz reports, we measure awareness and excitement of these things among the GB general public. I'll post a link here to the full, free PDF report when it's ready. Here's the full list:

Apple reveal the “New iPad”

Warner Bros. Studio Tour “The Making of Harry Potter” set to open

Sony release PlayStation Vita handheld gaming device (reprise for tracking)

Microsoft preview Windows 8 operating system

Google re-name “Android Market” as “Google Play”

Google implements wide-reaching new privacy policy

Sony unveil ‘floating interface’ touchless display for upcoming Xperia Sola smartphone

“The Sun on Sunday” newspaper is launched

Mobile roaming costs when abroad capped at £40

"Nokia 808 Pureview” 41 megapixel cameraphone revealed

Mass Effect 3 video game

BBC announce launch a TV programme download service to rival iTunes

Virgin Media win contract to provide wi-fi on London Tube system

BRITS top of the list in the latest Harris Buzz report

The latest Harris Buzz report is free and can be downloaded by clicking here

It's great to see the Brits topping the poll for Excitement in this edition.

The UK music industry is a massive success story and something to cherish in these incessantly gloomy economic times. The Brits is the premiere showcase for our country's talent around the world and it's pleasing to see that UK consumers connect with it so strongly.

A full list of what we covered:

1.       Google, Wikipedia and other sites “go offline” for SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) protest

2.       File-hosting site Megaupload taken down

3.       Brits (UK music industry awards)

4.       Prime Minister talks about backing “winners” for UK film industry

5.       Resident Evil 6 video game trailer released

6.       Microsoft launches Kinect for PCs

7.       Facebook unveils plans to float shares to raise $5bn

8.       Facebook rolls out “Timeline” profile format

9.       Sony to release Playstation Vita handheld gaming device

10.   Oscars (US film Academy Awards)

11.   US firm Netflix launches movie streaming service in UK

12.   Baftas (UK film/TV academy awards)

13.   Sky News clamps down on the use of Twitter

Get in touch if you have any queries - my contact details are on the right-hand pane.

Vita, Brits, Baftas, Oscars, SOPA, Kinect and more in Buzz#12 report

The latest Harris Buzz research report will be released later this week. I will post a link to it here.

Here's the list of news stories and launches we've asked the UK general public about in the latest edition:

1.       Google, Wikipedia and other sites “go offline” for SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) protest

2.       File-hosting site Megaupload taken down

3.       Brits (UK music industry awards)

4.       Prime Minister talks about backing “winners” for UK film industry

5.       Resident Evil 6 video game trailer released

6.       Microsoft launches Kinect for PCs

7.       Facebook unveils plans to float shares to raise $5bn

8.       Facebook rolls out “Timeline” profile format

9.       Sony to release Playstation Vita handheld gaming device

10.   Oscars (US film Academy Awards)

11.   US firm Netflix launches movie streaming service in UK

12.   Baftas (UK film/TV academy awards)

13.   Sky News clamps down on the use of Twitter

Steve's new Delicious stack on technology & entertainment news

Rather than re-tweet technology and entertainment news stories on Twitter, I've created my own "Stack" on Delicious. I use this for my own reference for major news stories and factoids. It's going to be updated regularly.

Feel free to take a look or follow it yourself. Click on the image or the link below to check it out.
http://www.delicious.com/stacks/view/JmFyKC

Buzz#11 now out - Netflix, Google Music, EMI, CoD 3, Battlefield 3 and a lot more

The 11th report in the Harris Buzz series is now available to download in full for free.

Click here to get the full report.

This 11th edition looks at the consumer buzz for the following:

Absolute Radio to launch two more “decade-themed” stations (60s and 70s) to add to their 80s and 90s stations

Batman: Arkham City video game

Battlefield 3 video game

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 video game

Google announce ‘Google Music’ service in the US to rival iTunes

James Murdoch questioned again over News International phone hacking scandal

Major record label EMI sold to Universal Music

Michael Jackson doctor Conrad Murray found guilty of involuntary manslaughter

Pop stars including Coldplay, Lady Gaga & Jessie J play in special concert for Children in Need

Nokia unveil new range of ‘Lumia’ Windows mobile devices

Samsung revealed to be the world’s best-selling smartphone manufacturer

The Inbetweeners Movie

US firm Netflix to launch movie streaming service in the UK

Buzz report bonanza - two new reports available

It's been a while since I've updated and there are two new free Harris Buzz reports available to download.

Buzz#10 - the November 2011 report is available here
Buzz#9 - the October 2011 reports is available here

Here's a summary of all the news stories and the brands we've measured in these two reports:

As always, get in touch if you want to know more. My contact details are on the right-hand pane.

Sneak preview of Buzz#9 - Star Wars Blu-ray

Buzz#9 from Harris Interactive is now underway and will be released in a couple of weeks. See here for all the previous Buzz reports.

Here's a sneak preview of what we're going to cover in this research. As always we look at the awareness, excitement and discussion buzz of all these things using a nationally representative sample of GB consumers aged 16-64.

• Star Wars films released on Blu-ray
• Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple
• Yahoo! boss is fired and company is put up for sale
• Microsoft unveils Windows 8 operating system for PCs and tablets
• HP to cease making PC/tablets to focus on software
• Google buy Motorola’s mobile division for $12.5bn
• BT ordered to block pirate sites
• BlackBerry to launch music service
• Big Brother re-launched on Channel Five
• Legal battle with Apple prevents Samsung selling its Galaxy tablets and smartphone
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution video game
• Gears of War 3 video game
• FA Cup match to be screened on Facebook

I'll post some findings when they're ready as well as posting a link to the full free report.

eBook reader, Kindle research - the democratic device

The latest Fast Forward report from Harris Interactive, the 9th edition, shows a substantial increase in ownership of eBook reader devices. Click here to download the full free report.

One of the things that distinguishes the eBook reader from other consumer electronic devices is how fairly distributed the incidence the ownership is across the age span in the country. If democratic is defined as being characterised by social equality, then the eBook reader is indeed one of the most democratic portable devices around today. This in fairly sharp contrast to the smartphone and tablet, as highlighted in an earlier post.

The data below shows a full profile of current ownership.

See how evenly the ownership profile is distributed by sex and age. Just as many 55+ year olds claim to own an eBook reader as 16-24s (and there are many more of the former in the general population).

If you want to know more, just get in touch - contact details on right-hand pane.

Mobile entertainment - the inexorable rise

It's been a full year since we published a new wave of our Fast Forward tracking report. This is the 9th edition with now over 2 years of tracking data.

The full report from Harris is free and click here to download it.

Fast Forward is a tracker of the UK public's entertainment habits, mobile entertainment habits, content piracy and device ownership. All data is based on nationally representative samples using the Harris Poll.  I'll post some other stories later, but in this post I'll focus on mobile entertainment.

The graph below shows how much more we are using our smartphones and other mobiles for entertainment and social networking.

Bear in mind the blue bar is a measure right now in August 2011 and the prior one is 12 months ago, so we should certainly expect to see significant gains in mobile entertainment usage as more and more of the general public acquire smartphones.


I've plucked out a few choice activities to show the same data in a way that really brings the uplifts to life:

Myspace research - news of sale hurts consumer brand sentiment

In the latest Harris Buzz report (the 8th edition) we took a new look at the Brand Buzz for Myspace, which is interesting given its recent sale and all the media coverage that went with it.

We see a dramatic decline in consumer Brand Buzz for the brand since that coverage - it's now just 20% of the level seen earlier this year.

Check out the full free report here.

News of the sale focused media attention on the Myspace brand with inevitable comparisons with the success of Facebook and Twitter. The story is all too clear from the ComScore/Reuters reporting below:

Harry Potter tops all-time list of Buzz excitement

The latest Harris Buzz report is available - click here and as usual it is free to download the full report.

In this edition (the 8th edition) we look at the public's awareness and buzz for the latest tech, media and entertainment news, including the newest Harry Potter film, the furore over phone hacking and the release of Google+.

The excitement for the last installment in the Harry Potter series tops our all-time list of excitement. The full all-time list ranked by excitement is shown below - and see the full report for the full story.

Get in touch if you want more details - contact details on the right-hand pane.

25% of US Netflix users using Wii to stream video

Some interesting data from Nielsen here showing which platforms Netflix and Hulu users in the States are using to stream video. 25% of Netflix users are using the Wii, which being SD only, is probably more a facet of its higher household penetration compared to other platforms.

It does show, at the same time, for Netflix, which appears more of a living room activity than Hulu, that the dominance of using a PC/laptop for streaming is diminishing and we are getting closer to that seamless living room, sofa and remote experience like, well, normal TV.

Sneak preview of Buzz#8 - incl HP TouchPad, Murdoch news & Harry Potter

Here's a sneak preview of what we're covering in our August Harris Buzz report. All prior reports can be downloaded for free - click here.

Tablet research - new Buzz report includes a tablet round-up

Click here to download the latest Harris Buzz report. Now in its 7th edition, like all prior Buzz reports, it looks at UK consumers' buzz for the latest devices and launches in entertainment and technology.

This new edition is a tablet special - including iPad 2, Motorola Xoom, PlayBook, HTC Flyer and Samsung Galaxy Tab.

But there is much more than tablets. We have a first look at the new handheld gaming platform, Sony Vita, plus a first look at the buzz for Nintendo's Wii U. We also look at the Apple iCloud announcement and a range of top video games, including LA Noire, Portal 2 and Fable III.

See the post immediately below for a full list of everything covered in the latest edition.

Hope you find it interesting. If you want more detail, feel free to contact me - details on right-hand pane.

Tablet research - Tablet special Buzz coming soon in early July

A quick post to alert you to the July edition of Harris Buzz. This will be a free report to download and I'll post a link on this blog for you to download.

The July edition of Harris Buzz is a bit of a tablet special. We have reprises of all the major competitors to iPad and iPad 2, both of which we covered in previous editions of Buzz and you can download any of the previous reports here.

In the July Buzz edition we will be looking at:

LA Noire video game

Portal 2 video game

Fable III video game

HTC Flyer tablet device

Motorola Xoom tablet device

Blackberry Playbook tablet device

Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet device

Nintendo 3DS

Orange/Barclaycard launch “pay-with-mobile” Quick Tap payment service

Twitter users warned over super-injunction infringements

Apple announce iCloud music streaming and online media storage service

Nintendo unveil new “Wii U” console (follow-up to Wii)

Sony unveil new “Playstation Vita” handheld gaming device (follow-up to PSP)

The report should be available to download for free next week.

Get in touch if you have any queries - my contact details are on the right-hand pane.

iPad research, tablet research, portable devices - share the barcode

Share the barcode to the new infographic of our consumer research into iPads, tablets, smartphones and other portable devices (and click here for the full report).

Device research, entertainment research - June Harris Buzz report out now

Time for another Harris Buzz report. Harris Buzz measures the buzz for the latest devices, launches and news in entertainment, media and technology.

We like free so the full report is available to download for, well, free - click here to download this report (pdf).

Interviewing for this edition was conducted in late May 2011, with a base of 1,344 respondents, weighted to be representative of national demographics, so it really is a view of the general public.

In this edition we look at the general public's buzz for:

• 3D TV sets

• Blinkbox (online video-on-demand service)

• Firefox 4 web browser launched

• Google launch Chromebook laptops

• Google launch cloud-based music service

• Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) web browser launched

• iPhone/iPad secretly tracking owner’s location

• Microsoft buy internet phone firm Skype

• Nokia E7 smartphone

• Sony Playstation online accounts hacked

• Star Wars films on Blu-ray announced for September launch

• Vevo (online music video service) launched

• Wii 2 (follow-up to Wii console) announced (pre-E3)

Please note that the "Wii 2" news is not the official E3 announcement, but the announcement a week or so earlier that they would showcase their follow-up console, unveiled as "Wii U", at E3. We'll be looking at the buzz of Wii U in the upcoming Buzz in a couple of weeks time.

How do these new set of launches and news items fare against all the other items we've covered in Buzz? Let's first look at awareness and familiarity - shown below is the full ranking. Rows highlighted in pale green are those new items listed above.

-CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW FOR THE CLEAREST VIEW-

We see 3 in 4 UK respondents aware of the Sony network hack and we see a massive increase in the awareness of 3D TV sets, the latter I'll blog about in a separate post later.

We don't just cover awareness in Harris Buzz. Let's now look at discussion buzz, the degree to which people are talking about these launches and news stories.

-CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW FOR THE CLEAREST VIEW-

That's a lot of people taling about the Sony network hack! And we see momentum gaining too for 3D TV sets from our tracking from last year.

And finally, let's look at excitement levels.

-CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW FOR THE CLEAREST VIEW-

I'll be posting more about 3D TV later. For now, I hope you like the latest data from Harris Buzz.

If you want to know more, just get in touch. My contact details are on the right-hand pane.