Tablet Sales Take Off: Survey Says

As if Apple needed any more of a boost with its announcement of the new iPad 3, U.S. tablet sales have been surging as of late -- and only expect to continue. Between mid-December and mid-January, the percentage of U.S. adults who own a tablet jumped from 10 percent to 19 percent, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

E-reader ownership also nearly doubled from 10 percent to 19 percent during the same time period, and the percentage of Americans who own either a tablet, an e-reader or both went from 18 percent to 29 percent. The launch of lower-priced devices like the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet in mid-November are credited with the surge in ownership.

Why it matters to your business: Tablet sales have not surpassed PC sales just yet, but they are likely to get there quicker than you (or many experts may have expected). So if you haven't yet developed a strategy for reaching your customers on tablets, an increasingly preferred method, it's time to start -- especially if your business is involved in e-commerce in any way. Consider developing an app, and if you don't yet have the resources to build one, at least ensure that your website is as tablet-optimized as possible.

Comments

[MichaelAKD]

11:32 AM on 03/08/2012

i used my first windows machine in 1993, since i've owned and worked on every ms os variant personally and professionally as well as owning several apple products and recently acquired an asus transformer prime running ics. i have a history that is longer and more varied in regards to tech than most. that said recently it seems the catch phrase of the day, the tablet will soon replace the desktop. eventually likely but not for some time and for a number of reasons. to begin with businesses which have hundreds or thousands of computers and all need to save money while staying current. the desktop design makes it relatively easy to replace and upgrade parts and software, tablets even notebooks not the case. also proprietary software, there are any number of companies from your local utility company to your medical insurance provider that use one or multiple custom software apps, programs that don't play well with others besides those in use by governmental agencies. we've an entire business ecology based on the pc, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, vendors, local, state and federal governments all designed built around the pc. to switch over such an enormous and vast number of networks, so much infrastructure would be the equivalent of switching our entire economy, the global economy from reliance on petroleum to say solar. a expensive and monumental task that even under the best of circumstances will take much time, money, resources and a great deal of creative thinking.

[ThinkCreeps]

10:19 AM on 03/08/2012

iCant. iBull. iNazi. iBuse. So many useful apps for the pope about Rome.

[RudyHaugeneder]

09:20 PM on 03/07/2012

So what is next? Lots, but as yet unknown to most of us.
And it won't be an Apple, but somebody else, preferably a new company and probably from an emerging nation that will shock us in North America into realizing we aren't the center of the universe; not even the center of the planet.
Any guesses as to what the next breakthrough will be, and where it will be launched from. My guess is, wait for it, from somewhere Africa where the innovative founders won't sell the firm to anyone, no matter how much cash is offered. The faces of those innovators will then splash across the covers of great magazines like Time, the Economist, the XXX.

[NevaforLeadership]

04:53 PM on 03/08/2012

Next revolution: Nanotechnology.