One in Four Americans Own a Tablet
One third of consumers in the U.S. own an e-book reading device.
According to Pew’s ongoing Internet & American Life survey, 25 percent of respondents owns a tablet, with e-reader ownership standing at 19 percent.
One in every three consumer owns either device -- a tablet, e-reader -- or both for e-reading. That statistic doubles the increase for tablets in December 2011, which is when tablets and e-readers were level; 10 percent of those surveyed said they owned one or the other.
The rise in tablet and e-reader ownership directly impacted how many consumers are purchasing e-books as opposed to printed books. The percentage of Americans who now read e-books increased to 23 percent in 2012, representing a 7 percent increase from 16 percent a year ago. During the same period, the percentage of those who read printed books decreased to 67 percent from 72 percent.
From the poll carried out in October and November, the percentage of consumers who own a tablet or dedicated e-reader increased to 33 percent from 18 percent in 2011.
"Last year (not this year) we asked a question about whether people were reading more now that so much content was digitized," Lee Rainie, director of the survey, told TechCrunch. "Thirty percent of people who read digital content — either books or longform journalism — say they are reading more now that they have the devices. So, it might be the case that as the price of devices and maybe some books continues to fall, some more people might take the plunge and get the device. "Book reading has almost always been something that richer people do more than poorer people do."
Pew's data is based on a survey conducted from October 15 to November 10, 2012. 2,252 Americans aged 16 and older were surveyed.
I do own one. My phone will read E-books, but it's not a tablet. I don't own a tablet.
I have only seen one person with a iPad(my neighbor) while my wife says her boss has one...
Beyond that 2 of my family members own a cheap android tablet. I think their numbers don't apply to the average population.
So easy to tell a Zak Islam article :lol;
I have several tablets, they are excellent to use when a laptop or netbook is too much to carry.
I have 7" up to 10.1" tabs with keyboard cases paid $70-$140 there great sites that cater to tabs and have custom roms . Coupled with my portable hotspot 4G or my phone 4G wifi at 150 it's all good.
If you want great performance then min specs Dual core @ 1.2 Ghz 1GB DDR3 the on board storage doesn't matter you can just switch the internal SD and the external SD mounts.
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iPad 1 (me), Kindle Fire (wife), iPod Touch (4 year old). My brother and my mom have the iPad 1 as well. My sister-in-law has an iPad 2. My mother-in-law has a Kindle Fire. Pretty much every person in my office has at least one tablet [that they use enough that they bring it to work with them].
I wonder if it is similar for a lot of people who have not regularly used a tablet?
FWIW- my iPad was a gift; I doubt I would have plunked down the $500+ to get one myself. My mom didn't like to see my brother squinting at his Blackberry screen, so she decided to get him an iPad 1; at the same time she got one for herself and one for me.
For me-- I use a desktop and laptop for work, but at home I only use a regular computer for eBay listings and the like.
My wife hasn't touched the PC at home since she got the Fire. My mom hasn't touched her laptop in over a year.
My brother gave away his desktop computer after getting the iPad [wasn't using it] and his wife's laptop died two months ago, she didn't bother replacing it-- has just been using her iPad 2.
For internet, light gaming and entertainment -- tablets do well enough to be the primary computing device IMO. Though, I certainly don't see them completely replacing regular PCs for the top couple of percent for a long time.
1- have a smartphone and that is good enough for them
2- own one
3- want one or have at least entertained the idea of buying one
The ownership rate among my acquaintances is indeed around 25%.
As far as e-ink goes, the concept is nice but the few models I have seen failed to impress me. The contrast ratio and resolution of those I have seen were much worse than I was expecting. Those monochrome screens really need to get up to 300+dpi.
I almost never use it as I believe I get work done better in my desktop
I wanted to sell my tablet 3 months after buying it to realize it will sell for $200 dollars on ebay
I really like my tablet but I don't use it much
A "tablet" and "e-book reading device" are not the same. While tablets are "e-book reading devices," not all "e-book reading devices" are tablets, thus accounting for the difference between the numbers.