Where are iPads most popular?

Gary Levin, USA TODAY | USATODAY

Where are smartphones hottest? In which cities are iPads most popular? And who watches the most live TV?

The Nielsen ratings service provides answers in its first in-depth study of media habits in 25 major American metropolitan areas. Among the findings:

• Live TV viewing is most prevalent in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Midwestern cities including Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland and St. Louis, where viewers spent an average of more than 5 hours a day watching live TV according to the study, conducted in February. St. Louis residents and Clevelanders spent the most time watching time-shifted TV, nearly an hour a day.

• Orlando residents had the biggest year-to-year increase in overall viewing, up 25%, while Miami and Minneapolis folks shook the habit, as TV usage there declined 23% and 24%, respectively, from February 2012.

• San Franciscans were most likely to own iPads and other tablet devices: 36% of homes there did in February, Nielsen says, followed closely by Boston with 35% and Washington, D.C., where one in three residents had one. New York, Denver and Baltimore were the fastest-growing in terms of tablet ownership rates: Each rose 19% from last year. iPad usage was lowest in Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Phoenix, where 10% or fewer use them.

• Among iPad owners, Nielsen found just 3% say they use them to read newspapers, but that figure is sharply higher in San Francisco (where 6.6% say they do) and New York (4.9%).

• Smartphones, also gaining in popularity, are most popular in Houston, where 76% of residents ages 13 and older own one, followed by Dallas (73%), Washington and Sacramento (72%), Miami (71%) and Los Angeles and San Francisco (70%). Minneapolis and Orlando had the fastest growth in terms of smartphone ownership, up 22% and 21%, respectively.

• And video on demand, which enables viewers to time-shift viewing without a DVR, has been slower to catch on, but is most prevalent in Dallas and Detroit, and least so in Charlotte and Los Angeles.