Having trouble deciding what gadget to give this year?  Take a look at this study that has been just released by Nielsonwire.  The study takes a look at this year’s most requested tech items.

In the children’s category (ages 6-12) we see an important trend, Apples! Apple holds 4 of the top 5 items in this list, with the other being the Nintendo Wii U.  In total, 11 out of 25 items are dedicated gaming gadgets, while 22 are game capable.  This gaming breakdown hold true when looking at the 13+ category as well!  It seems people want to play.  That being said, the top two gaming items are the Apple iPad and the Nintendo Wii U.

So, which one should you buy?  Let’s take a look.

Tech Specs:

iPad – In first place for all age categories of the study is the Apple iPad, which sports wifi (or 3G), a dual-core A6x processor, 512 Mb (iPad 2 & mini) of 1GB (3rd and 4th gen iPad) of memory, and a quad-core graphics chip.  This makes it ideal for gaming.

Nintendo Wii U – This system comes with a controller that has a built in touch screen that interacts with the games and/or becomes the screen for those games, an HDMI port for video, wifi, 2GB of memory, and a tri-core processor.  It is also backwards compatible with all previous Wii games.

Similarities:

  • Both have a touch screen.
  • Both have excellent games for them from top game studios
  • Both feature the ability to play with multiple people through the Internet.
  • Both are capable of stunning HD graphics.

Differences:

  • iPad does more than just gaming, while Wii U is focused on only games at this point.
  • iPad has over 100,000 applications (thousands of which are games), where Wii U has 23 launch titles.
  • Adding additional games to the iPad costs between $0 – $6.99 (on average), while the Wii U games have an MSRP of $59.99.
  • Wii U allows multiple players to play (though only one can use the touch screen) and is designed as a dedicated television console, while iPad is more a unit for individual handheld play.

Price Point:

Wii U – $299.99 for the entry unit $349.99 for the DELUXE edition (boasting more internal memory for game storage).
iPad – $329 for the iPad Mini (which has the same specs as the 2 which is $399, bit is smaller) and $499 for the newest full-size iPad with Retina HD display.

Winner:
iPad

The iPad is gaming device that does not cost the owner as much to fill it with content.  Despite the large name of Nintendo behind the Wii U, 23 release titles cannot compare to the thousands of already polished games available for the iPad.  Additionally, the iPad can go everywhere, can do emails, document creation, and even film editing.

With so many more features and an entry price of $329, the iPad seems to take the cake here.

For a full rundown from Nielsonwire’s research, check out their results in this helpful graph below.