An old logging town at the edge of Oregon’s Ponderosa forest earns an unusual distinction
According to Net Application‘s May 1 report, the five U.S. market areas with the largest concentration of iPads — measured by its clients’ browser data — are as follows:
- San Francisco, Calif. (0.25% Internet share)
- Grand Junction, Colo. (0.23%)
- Santa Barbara, Calif. (0.19%)
- Honolulu, Hawaii (0.19%)
- Bend, Ore. (0.19%)
Bend what?
Yes, Bend, Ore., a city 82,000 souls nearly 200 miles from the nearest Apple Store that seems to give lie to the notion that iPad fever is a condition that affects only Apple (AAPL) diehards in large metropolitan areas.
Bend is the largest town in sparsely populated central Oregon, which is why when The Nielsen Company carved America’ television markets into a jigsaw puzzle of 210 Designated Market Areas, it made Bend the center of the DMA that covers the lower third of Oregon, from the Pacific coast to Klamath Falls, with a bit of northern California thrown in for good measure. (See map.)
Nielsen’s Bend (the DMA, not the city) is one of the U.S.’s smallest media markets but a fast-growing one, thanks to a booming population, an influx of new industry and a growing interest in outdoor sports. Based on the number of viewers in their respective markets, one iPad in Bend (DMA No. 192) is the equivalent of 112 iPads in New York City (No. 1).
Still, it’s hard to imagine large numbers of Bendites making the three-hour drive to Portland to queue up for Apple’s latest invention. If you live in the area and own an iPad, we’d love to hear how you got it and what you’re doing with it.
[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]