The tablet takeover?

I bought twin-brother Geoff a Kindle Fire for Christmas (after he’d dropped several unsubtle hints in the festive build-up ). It seems I wasn’t alone. Some great data in this analytical feature indicates that tablet ownership in the USA almost doubled in December 2011 - January 2012; a significant growth in the user-based of tablet-style devices.

Many devices are now included in what is loosely called the “tablet market”. The Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook - whilst mainly e-book readers - iare there alongside the iPad, Samsung Galaxy and Blackberry Playbook. Whilst the price-points and functionality vary, the common characteristics of these devices are that they include touchscreens and run app-based software.

Demand for tablets had already been growing strongly during 2011, but it was the Christmas 2011 period which seemed to take the market into a totally new level of growth.

Tablet adoption varies by consumer segment (as you might expect) with particularly strong growth amongst high-income earners and in education. However, I suspect we are now entering a phase of much wider demand as moe new products enter the market and tablet use becomes widespread.

The UK market for tablets is following a similar growth path to the US. KPMG’s regular analysis of the UK market indicates that:

Smartphone ownership is up one third, while tablets, new to the UK market in July 2010, have seen ownership more than double in the past six months.

Appetite for digital content is also increasing, with tablets currently receiving the largest proportion of respondents’ spend. Whilst from a lower base, early indications suggest that consumers are more willing to pay for applications (apps) on their tablets, with monthly spend at £8.87, than on their smartphones (£5.65).

Since the first wave of research in September 2009, consumers of electronic books have doubled. The survey finds that consumers spend more on e-books (£4) per month than on online games (£2) or streamed TV (£1), with only downloaded music accounting for more disposable income (£5).