About twice as many US adults are using tablets in January than were in the months preceding the holiday season, according to a recent survey funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Research Project. In a survey of almost 3,000 people in November and December found that about 10 percent of US adults had tablets. A similar survey of more than 1,000 people conducted in mid-January found that now about 19 percent of US adults had tablets.
Those with higher levels of education and those living in households that earn more than $75,000 each year saw the highest increases in tablet ownership. About 36 percent of those living in households earning more than $75,000now own a tablet computer, while about 31 percent of those with college educations or higher now have the devices. Perhaps not surprisingly the under-50 age group saw a "significant leap in tablet ownership" over the holidays.
Pew's researcher stated that they were struck by the findings because there had been little uptick in tablet ownership in the months leading up to the holidays. From mid-2011 into the fall there was not much change in ownership levels of the devices, according to the research organization. Pew pointed to the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble’s Nook Tablet, which are considerably less expensive than some other tablet devices, as one potential reason for the uptick.
Pew noted that the combined surveys have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points, so tablet adoption is currently anywhere between 16.6 percent of US adults and 21.4 percent.
