(By Rich Bieglmeier) Technology gifts are always hot in the giving season. So, iStock headed to Google Trends to see which smartphones and tablets might show up under the Christmas Tree with the greatest frequency next Tuesday.
Our hope is to get in front of some emerging trends that may or may not have been picked up by most investors, yet.
For tablets, we Google Trended the keywords, iPad, Kindle, Google Nexus, Samsung Galaxy 10, and iPad mini as each produces the highest scores for search volume. Our smartphone keywords include iPhone 5, Nexus 4, Galaxy S3, and Nokia 920. Again, the search terms were picked based on highest intensity.
According to Google Trends, Apple's (AAPL) iPads, iPhone 5 and Amazon's (AMZN) Kindle will be the gift of choice. Interestingly, iPad searches are running at twice the intensity as iPhone 5. Given the choice, I'd prefer the tablet over the phone, too.
Surprisingly, the iPad mini isn't the tablet of choice in the lower-end priced market. That honor goes to Amazon's Kindle Fire, which is the third most popular tech query. In fact, a lot of people will rip open their neatly wrapped boxes to find Amazon's tablet. When earnings are announced, or after the holiday season numbers are in, iStock believes Amazon will announce better than expected tablet sales as Kindle searches are at 2012 highs, climbing, and rivaling iPhone 5 searches.
Samsung's Galaxy products are running about half the pace of iPhone 5 and Kindle searches. However, both the tab and S3 search trends are heading lower as December moves along. It seems that most of those who are going to give the Galaxy tablet or smartphone to loved ones have made their purchases already.
As for Google's Nexus 10 (tablet), Nexus 4 (smartphone), and Nokia's 920, Google trend say sightings under the x-mas tree will be rare, As a matter of fact, search volume intensity for the products have been flat-lining for a while.
For investors, Apple leading the pack comes as no surprise. Now, Amazon's Kindle tussling with the iPhone 5 is unexpected to us. We think investors that want a little something extra from Santa this year might do well with Amazon, especially if our interpretation of Google Trends is correct.