Editor’s note: John Dick is founder and CEO of CivicScience, a Pittsburgh-based research firm. This is an edited version of a post that originally appeared under the title, “Apple’s new service announcements: The overnight results.”
If there’s anything Tim Cook and his team might regret about the latest heavily-publicized new product announcements, it’s that they had to compete with the Mueller report for media and consumer attention. That was just a bad break.
Otherwise, Apple’s “It’s show time” event was full of headline-grabbing revelations, from the unveiling of a new streaming service, to new details behind their news initiative and even a new credit card offering. Every breath of Twitter air not gasped by Mueller was gulped by Apple.
But did consumers notice? And what was their initial take?
CivicScience ran a series of survey questions up to and following the Apple event to gauge awareness and interest in the new offerings. Here’s what we’re seeing:
Overall, the new streaming service has the highest level of overall awareness and consumer interest at this point. By noon on March 26, only 28 percent of U.S. consumers aged 13+ said they had not heard about Apple’s new video, TV and movie offering. Of those who were aware of the service, 15 percent expressed an interest in trying it – including 26 percent of iPhone owners. Only 5 percent of Samsung owners said they would consider it. Interest was significantly higher among women.
The Apple News subscription service was very appealing to political moderates. Within 24 hours of the announcement, 46 percent of respondents had yet to hear anything about the Apple News service. Of those who had heard of the service, 11 percent said they are interested. Again, this group skewed heavily female as well as significantly more likely to have a graduate degree or higher. Notably, those who identify as politically Independent are two-times more likely than Republicans or Democrats to be interested in the service. Politically leaning people don’t want anyone else to curate their news for them.
The Apple credit card has the highest hill to climb, particularly among women. On par with the news service, 46 percent of respondents said they were unaware of Apple’s new credit card offering. Of those, only 7 percent said they were interested in it. Unlike the other services, however, interest in the Apple credit card skewed more male – consistent with higher rates of early adoption among men that we see with other financial products.