By Leslie Clavin
Earlier this week, a survey from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that the percentage of U.S. adults who own a tablet computer practically doubled to 19 percent over the winter holidays. The survey found a similar growth in the adoption of e-Readers, which share of ownership also grew from 10 percent to 19 percent during the mid-December to mid-January timeframe.
The Pew report credits devices like the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet as a key driver of this growth in adoption, given the entry-level price points of those devices. Some analysts estimate that Amazon may have sold more than 5 million Kindle Fire devices in the last quarter of 2011. (According to Cnet, Amazon is being coy on the exact number shipped, but has said it sold more than 1 million Kindle devices each week of December.) Of course, Apple, which is scheduled to release its numbers later today, still dominates the category with the iPad, but this growth may start to alleviate any doubt that the company had already sewn up the tablet market.
A little bit about me: My smartphone runs my life – from keeping track of my work email and making sure the kids are on time for their next soccer game to managing my grocery lists and keeping tabs on current events (like the Giants [San Francisco, NOT New York] game). My dream app? The AP Stylebook for Android.
