Study: Half of U.S. Adults Own Tablet or Smart Phone

by Christopher Freeburn | October 1, 2012 2:37 pm

Tablets and smartphones have become mainstream devices amongst Americans[1], with their use growing at an accelerating rate, a study has found.

According to a joint survey of more than 9,500 adults in the U.S. conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Economist Group, half currently use either a tablet computer or a smartphone to connect to the Internet.

The number of tablet owners doubled from last year, rising to 22%. And the demand for tablets is rising, too, with 23% of adults without a tablet saying they plan to purchase one in the next six months.

Lower-price tablets are taking market share. Last year 81% of tablet owners owned Apple‘s (NASDAQ:AAPL[2]) iPad. That fell to just 52% this year. Tablets running Google‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG[3]) Android operating system rose to 48%. Amazon‘s (NASDAQ:AMZN[4]) Kindle Fire tablets fared well in the survey with 21% of respondents saying they owned one.

Nearly half of respondents, 44%, have smartphones. That’s up from 35% last year.

Better than 60% of both smartphone and tablet users said they use their mobile devices to access news on at least a weekly basis. 73% of tablet owners said they read full-length feature articles on their device occasionally, while 61% of smartphone owners said the same.

Despite this, the survey found that the use of dedicated news apps remained low. Most mobile device users locate news using their device’s Web browser.

Endnotes:

  1. become mainstream devices amongst Americans: http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/future_mobile_news
  2. AAPL: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=AAPL
  3. GOOG: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=GOOG
  4. AMZN: http://studio-5.financialcontent.com/investplace/quote?Symbol=AMZN

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2012/10/study-half-of-u-s-adults-own-tablet-or-smart-phone/