Raw Data Report: Laptops and eBooks

Each day, Wall Street is flooded with stock research offering a multitude of conflicting investment opinions. As such, TickerMine is not in the business of providing more opinions. We believe that accurate raw data points can be used to gain insight in to the stock selection and valuation process.

Amazon.com (AMZN): 33 Percent of Respondents say they Own an eBook

To get a feeling for the popularity of eBooks, the world's leading source of online eBooks, Tickermine took a random poll of readers this month and asked: Do you own a copy of an eBook, do you plan to own one, what is the most you would be willing to pay for one, which factors influence your decision to purchase an eBook, how would you use an eBook and which brand would you prefer buying? We quizzed 35 different people, two of which were outside of the US. Eleven respondents or 33% said they owned an eBook and 24 or 67% said they did not. Thirteen or 37% said they planned to buy one in the future and 22 or 63% said they would not. Twenty respondents or 57% said they would be willing to pay under $100 for an eBook. Eight or 23% said they would pay $100-$200. Four or 11% stated $200-$300 and 2 or 6% capped their price at $300-$400. Only one person or 3% said they would be willing to pay over $400. Various factors would impact someone's decision to buy an eBook. Most cited how many books it can hold as the prime motivator. This factor was cited 11 times or 32%. The wireless downloading of the material was the determinant for 9 respondents or 26% and the battery life was on the minds of 5 respondents or 14%. The look and then separately, the size were cited four times or 11% and the weight was the concern for two respondents or 6%. When asked how they would most likely use an eBook, most said they would read books (21 or 60%), four or 11% said web content, three respondents or 9% said they would read magazines, the same ratios applied for reading blogs and two respondents or 6% stated documents and then separately newspapers. As for eBook brands, 13 respondents or 37% chose Kindle and 12 or 34% preferred Sony Reader. Ten or 29% said they prefer reading on printed paper.

Dell (DELL) Laptop Computers Are the Most Favored Brand, Survey Says

Laptop computer sales aren't too hot this quarter, if sales at Best Buy are anything to go by, but not as slow as analysts had expected either. Tickermine surveyed 32 various stores this month including Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart and Radio Shack and asked the following: What, in the respondents view, is the best brand of laptop, which model series does that brand belong to, which brand of microprocessors does this computer have and what is the name of the processor? Dell came in as the most popular laptop computer brand. This was cited by 11 respondents or 34%. Hewlett Packard was next with nine responses or 28% followed by Sony (7 or 22%), Toshiba (4 or 13%) and Acer (1 response or 3%). Respondents stated Ispiron and Pavillion as the model series (9 responses or 34%). Vaio was also popular with seven responses or 22%, Satellite was cited by 4 respondents or 13% and Aspire, G1s and Presario were cited once each or 3%. The attendants we polled cited only two different brands of microprocessors being used by these laptops: Intel, cited by 21 respondents or 66% and then AMD was stated 11 times or 34%. And the names of the processors fell under two categories: AMD Turions, which were the choice of 13 respondents or 41% and Other, which constituted 19 or 59% of those polled.

H-P (HPQ) Pavilion Is Best Desktop, Say 38% of Respondents

TickerMine surveyed Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Circuit City, and Radio Shack stores across the country to identify the best desktop computer. Thirty-eight percent of respondents named the HP Pavilion, followed closely by the Dell Inspiron, which was cited by 35%. Seventy-one percent of the top desktops use Intel microprocessors, said respondents. Specific Intel microprocessors named included the Intel Core Duo (29%), Intel Pentium (24%), Intel Core 2 Quad (12%) and Intel Celeron (6%.) Twenty-nine percent of survey respondents mentioned desktop computers using microprocessors made by AMD, including the AMD Athlon (24%) and the AMD Phenom (6%.)