Wired has posted the results of an unscientific, but provocative, report from MyType on the personalities of iPad haves and have-nots--that is, those that own the device, and those that don't (and/or dislike it).
MyType's survey of 20,000 people, conducted between March and May 2010, concluded that iPad owners were likely to be "selfish elites," while critics of the iPad, 96% of whom did not own the tablet, tended to fall in the "independent geeks" category. (See MyType's chart on Wired)
Wired explains the psychology of these iPad-owning "selfish elites":
The firm’s conclusion was that iPad owners tend to be wealthy, sophisticated, highly educated and disproportionately interested in business and finance, while they scored terribly in the areas of altruism and kindness.[...] They are six times more likely to be “wealthy, well-educated, power-hungry, over-achieving, sophisticated, unkind and non-altruistic 30-50 year olds,” MyType’s Tim Koelkebeck told Wired.com.
MyType described "independent geeks" as “self-directed young people who look down on conformity and are interested in videogames, computers, electronics, science and the internet." For them, says MyType, "bashing" the iPad is an "identity statement."
Yahoo collected some data on iPad early adopters, and although they didn't investigate the personalities of the consumers, their number crunching offers an additional look at who's using their device and how. They found that male iPad owners outnumbered their female counterparts two to one. Perhaps adding credence to MyType's conclusion that iPad users are "disproportionately interested in business and finance," Yahoo also reported that "Flickr, Finance, Sports and News were all among the Yahoo! properties most frequently visited by the Yahoo! user [using the iPad]."
What do you think of the MyType research results? Believable or BS? Weigh in below.