UPDATE: Nielsen Releases New Data!

After publication, Nielsen revealed it made a mistake.

According to a spokesperson: "One of the charts featured in the October 21, 2010, NielsenWire blog post 'Connected Devices: Does the iPad Change Everything?' and included in the related Nielsen fact sheet on Connected Devices contained an erroneous analysis of Apple iPad download activity. An updated analysis reveals 91 percent of Apple iPad owners report having downloaded an app, not the figure previously reported. The analysis has been corrected and an updated chart and fact sheet are attached so that you might update any stories or posts."

Here is the new chart Nielsen sent through:

The original post continues below, unedited. As you can see, buying paid apps on the iPad is incredibly popular.

Original Post:

63% of iPad owners have purchased at least one paid app, and the most popular paid app categories are games, (62%), books (54%), music (50%) and news/headlines (45%). However, as you can tell from the chart below, many categories are seeing good uptake from paid app shoppers, indicating that iPad owners are more than willing to pay for content.

Only 5% of the iPad user base claim they only download free apps, but 32% said they did not download any app. That's right - no apps at all.

What the survey didn't reveal - and what we're curious about - is how many paid apps people have on their iPad. Personally, I have less than 10, but that's probably because I'm not much of a gamer. Plus, I tend to use the iPad to check email (I even prefer it to using Gmail!) and to surf the Web. What about you?

Take the Poll!

iPad owners, please take our weekly poll and share your stats. Feel free to comment, too, about your favorite paid apps.