Over one third of technology enthusiasts – readers of X-bit labs – said they would like to get a game console for Christmas. Just a little more of the polled audience would like to receive something PC-related, which once again proves the increasing popularity of the gaming machines even among the tech audiences that used to be skeptic about the consoles.

Approximately 37.3% of the readers who participated in a survey by X-bit labs said they would like to receive Microsoft Xbox 360 (6.7%), Nintendo Wii (13.7%) or Sony PlayStation 3 (16.9%) as a gift for Christmas with the vast majority voting for the forthcoming console from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. About 4% of the readers would like to have something from the consumer electronics – a new Plasma TV to play the newest console games, perhaps?

Only about 6.2% of respondents feel like they want to get Apple iPod (3.3%) or Microsoft Zune (2.9%) digital media players, which may indicate that the boom of the media players is over for now. Roughly 2.7% would like to have a new mobile phone.

It is interesting to note that only 23.1% of readers of the web-site primarily focused on PC hardware would like to receive something to install into their rigs and just 17.9% would simply like to receive a new personal computer. As a result, barely 41% of the surveyed would like to get something related to the PC, which should be alarming sign for hardware makers, as already 37.3% of their potential clients would like to have a game console too.

X-bit labs polled over 4000 of its readers in the second half of October and in the first half of November, 2006.