The growing popularity of connected devices, from tablet computers like the Apple iPad to smartphones, portable games players, and eBook readers like the Kindle and Nook, is already changing how some consumers engage with media. It is also creating new opportunities and challenges for a broad range of companies. Publishers, media companies and application developers are eager to know whether they should optimize their content for particular devices. Advertisers want to understand how these devices might eventually fit into their overall marketing plans.  Carriers want to know how to evolve their business models in a multi-connection world. And device manufacturers need to understand how consumers are using connected devices so they can improve their products, fine-tune their marketing and win the battle for market share.

Nielsen’s  new Connected Devices Playbook surveys more than 5,000 consumers who already own a tablet computer, eReader, netbook, media player or smartphone – including 400 iPad owners. Below are some of the findings of the Playbook shared today at Advertising Week.

Who owns connected devices?

• iPad owners skew younger and more male.  Sixty-five percent of them are male and 63 percent of them are under the age of 35.
• Kindle owners tend to be wealthier.  Forty-four percent of them make more than $80,000/year compared to 39 percent of iPad owners and 37 percent of iPhone owners.  They also tend to have more education: 27 percent of Kindle owners have Master’s degrees or doctorates.

How receptive are they to advertising?

• iPad owners are more  receptive to advertising on their touchscreen tablet than owners of other devices.
• Thirty-nine percent of iPad owners say ads on their connected device are new and interesting, compared to 19% of all connected device owners. And 46% say they enjoy ads with interactive features compared to 27% of all connected device owners.
• Perhaps most important to advertisers, iPad owners are also the most likely to have made a purchase as a result of seeing an ad on their connected device.