Wii demand outstrips hunger for iPod and iPhone

Throughout the month of November the Nintendo Wii was the most searched for product by UK internet shoppers, far outstripping the demand for the most searched for mobile phone (Apple’s iPhone), competitive intelligence company Hitwise claims.

In total, 13 times as many searches were made for ‘Nintendo Wii’ as there were for ‘Apple iPod’, and the ‘Wii’ was searched for twice as much as the combined figures for ‘iPod’ and ‘iPhone’. The number of searches for ‘Nintendo Wii’ was also up 158 per cent compared to November 2006, whilst ‘Wii’ searches climbed by 278 per cent.

"The Nintendo Wii is hugely popular this year, accounting for six in every ten searches for a games console,” Hitwise’s director of research Robin Goad stated. The popularity of the Wii and the Nintendo DS mean that there were more searches for Nintendo products in November than Apple products. This is despite the significant increases in searches for both the iPod and the iPhone, which is currently the most searched for mobile phone in the UK."

For the two weeks ending December 1st, the Top Ten most searched items on shopping sites were:
1. Nintendo Wii – 0.19%
2. Nintendo DS – 0.07%
3. Ugg boots – 0.07%
4. Lego – 0.06%
5. Bratz – 0.06%
6. iPhone – 0.06%
7. iPod – 0.05%
8. Barbie – 0.04%
9. iPod Nano – 0.04%
10. Xbox 360 – 0.03%