In the study A Portrait of Today’s Tablet Users—Wave
II, the Online Publishers Association (OPA) found that adoption of the
electronic gadgets in the United States is up from 2011, and still rising, and
that the vast majority of people use the devices to access content and information.
The online survey from the OPA and Frank N. Magid Associates Inc. reached 2,540 individuals
between the ages of 8 and 64 from March 19-26, 2012. It found that 67% of those
surveyed used tablets to surf the web and 66% checked their e-mail. Other
primary activities include watching videos (54%), getting weather information
(49%), reading national news (37%), and viewing entertainment content (36%).
The report found that 74% of users use their tablets
daily, with 60% using it several times each day. In addition, tablet users
spend 13.9 hours per week on the device, 92% of video watched on a tablet involve
news and entertainment clips, 23% of all tablet applications downloaded in the
past year were paid apps, and that the tablet app market doubled in size from
$1.4 billion in 2011 to an estimated $2.6 billion this year.
“The growing base of tablet users is also showing a
healthy appetite for paid content with 61% having purchased tablet content in
the past year,” said Pam Horan, president of the OPA. “Considering tablets have
only been available for a little over two years, the findings of this study
truly underscore the possibilities for publishers to grow their business as
consumers are willing to open their wallets in order to have original content
at their fingertips.”
