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Television Toys United States Technology

How High-Tech Gadget Trends Differ By US Region 51

Ant writes in with news of a study revealing differences in gadget preferences by US region. The survey is not rigorous, based as it was on 7,500 online questionnaires submitted to Retrevo, a website for tech shoppers. The company plans to run the survey annually. "...in the smartphone category, the state of Maryland came out on top with 48 percent more households owning at least one such handset than elsewhere in the country. ... In iPad use, the state of New York took top honors. According to the survey, 52 percent more households have at least one iPad in the Empire State. ... Massachusetts beat out the rest of the nation in e-reader adoption..."
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How High-Tech Gadget Trends Differ By US Region

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  • by elrous0 ( 869638 ) * on Tuesday August 03, 2010 @04:00PM (#33130130)
    And Alabama once again ranked #1 in "States Most Likely To Ban New Technology As Work of a Witch."
    • by Yvan256 ( 722131 )

      Villager: We have found a witch, may we burn her?
      Crowd: BURN!! BUUUURN HER!
      Bedevere: But how do you *know* she is a witch?
      Villager: She looks like one!
      Other Villagers: Yeah! She looks like one!!!

      • by rwa2 ( 4391 ) *

        I'm just going to cut this off now and jump ahead to:

        "A duck!"
          *crowd gasps*

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      And Alabama once again ranked #1 in "States Most Likely To Ban New Technology As Work of a Witch."

      Whenever my state ranks 2nd in something bad, or 49th in something good, I just smile and say: "Thanks Alabama".

      • So you're from Arkansas.

      • by mcgrew ( 92797 ) *

        I woouldn't trust these numbers. "The survey is not rigorous, based as it was on 7,500 online questionnaires submitted to Retrevo, a website for tech shoppers".

        "Not rigorous" is likely the understatement of the week. It's only 150 households per state, giving it a HUGE margin of error. Plus "online questionnaires" adds self-selection, but what really matters is "submitted to Retrevo, a website for tech shoppers". So these numbers only apply to people who have ever heard of this site.

        In short -- you can comp

    • by gmhowell ( 26755 )

      Does an iPad weigh more than a duck?

  • by deapbluesea ( 1842210 ) on Tuesday August 03, 2010 @04:01PM (#33130144)

    The San Francisco Bay Area was also duly noted by Retrevo for being the greenest region with the most energy-efficient consumer electronics.

    Which explains why my lifestyle reverted to 1999 post-tech bubble standards as soon as I moved from Colorado to here. Of course, it's easy to recycle when you get a 70 gallon recycling bin and a 20 gallon trash bin from WM. Suddenly a lot more trash looks recyclable....

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by shemp42 ( 1406965 )

      Yes and they took the top for most energy efficient because energy costs so much. My 850 square foot apartment cost me almost 3 times as much to heat and cool as the 1950 square foot townhouse i rent now in eastern Washington. My energy bill in Concord Ca. which is in the bay area was $250+ a month. Here in eastern Washington. $85-$105 a month.

    • If you live in the New England states, you'll see a lot of recycling there too - They've adopted the California emissions standards for cars, as well as other CA-generated green practices.

      I'm not surprised to see Maryland at #1. I've traveled all over the place, and that's the nerdiest-geekiest state in the Union. You have a lot of electronics and computer-based companies clustered around the cities of Baltimore and Washington, plus the so-called "technocrats" that fill all the government bureaucracies in

  • by jeffmeden ( 135043 ) on Tuesday August 03, 2010 @04:01PM (#33130156) Homepage Journal

    Obvious survey is obvious, film at 11. If you earn more than people in other states, you will spend more on gadgets than other states.

    • But which gadgets? What toys do the populations of the different states choose to spend their money on? That's what this survey answers.
      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by bwayne314 ( 1854406 )
        <quote>But <em>which</em> gadgets? What toys do the populations of the different states choose to spend their money on? That's what this survey answers.</quote>

        NY: Geek toys
        San Fran : Sex toys
        New Orleans : Inflatable sex toys
        Alabama: Inflatable sex toys that look like your sister
        • by AHuxley ( 892839 )
          The geek toy used to drive a sex toy modded into an inflatable farm critter can be found in? Sis wants to know
          • Sis wants to know

            Well Sis...uhmm...I mean AHuxley, you asked for it! [discreet-romance.com]

            Oh, and while *ahem* 'Sis' is waiting for "Blow Up Billy Goat", [discreet-romance.com] 'Sis'can
            plan the anticipated action here. [kezfun.net]

            [1]
            This is the first result with google.com in the search for 'farm animal sex toys' that was not some bestiality pr0n vids/pics web site.
            I tried the search to find something appropriate to link to to post a snarky comment, like: 'Try Oklahoma!', but this applies to any USA
            state "Where the men are MEN, and the sheep/goats are SCARED!".

            BTW: if I get goat

  • Correction (Score:5, Funny)

    by vlm ( 69642 ) on Tuesday August 03, 2010 @04:02PM (#33130162)

    Just to point out a correction to the article, in Detroit Michigan that's "Point and Shoot Gun" not "Point and Shoot Camera"

  • by Anonymous Coward

    And Alabama once again ranked #1 in "States Most Likely To Ban New Technology As Work of a Witch." ---- baawwwhahahahahahaha i love it!

  • by Rob the Bold ( 788862 ) on Tuesday August 03, 2010 @04:09PM (#33130304)
    A fun graphical view of this is to read the discussion thread of the daily Woot! item, you'll see a gradient-shaded US map with the 50 states indicating the purchase rate. Today's item, a pair of pedometers isn't particularly high tech, so not a great example. But they are selling well in Utah, poorly in Alabama, Alaska and North Dakota. I've never checked to see if this is scaled by population. Almost everything on Woot! sells poorly in West Virginia.
  • I imagine the customer order and shipping records could have provided similar data.
    • by radish ( 98371 )

      Not really. ThinkGeek sells toys - not gadgets (no phones, no ipods/pads, etc). And anything they do sell, they're almost always one or the more expensive places to get it. If I need caffinated shower gel it's my first stop, but not for serious gadget shopping.

  • This explains why the state is broke and public education has completely failed. The state is totally full of wackos.
  • "the state of Maryland came out on top with 48 percent more households owning at least one such handset than elsewhere in the country."

    What does this mean? I can think of three different interpretations of this which would all result in vastly different distributions throughout the country.

    My best guess, based on realistic assumptions, is that it means that the *rate* of ownership in Maryland is 1.48x the rate of the entire country. If so, they worded the article poorly. Taken literally, they make it sound

  • by Anonymous Coward
    That's no surprise, we all know NY is full of a holes! hehehe :P
  • The results, which were based on 7,500 online questionnaires submitted to the consumer electronics review company Retrevo, support commonsense assumptions in some cases about where certain devices might be hot.

    The geek is a sucker for the online poll.

  • Er, what? They're basing their conclusions for individual states on an online poll with a meager 7500 participants? That's around 150 participants per state, I highly doubt you can get any meaningful statistic out of those numbers.
  • new york have more hopeful artists and execs running around then anywhere else in USA?

  • It certainly would have been handy to have had a link to something that looked like results. Graphs, data points, or something would have worked...
  • Why on earth would you run a story that is essentially advertising, for those assholes "Retrevo" that come up as spam any time you do a key word search for some arbitrary product and "review"? They never have any reviews, just spam.

    Might as well run a story published by Nigerian scammers or folks selling Viagra.

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