According to Pew Research, tablet ownership among U.S. consumers nearly doubled from 10 percent to 19 percent over the holiday season.
The Pew project conducted three surveys, one in mid-December and two at the beginning of 2012. The results show a marked increase in ownership of tablets, e-readers, and the hybrids that exist somewhere between those two categories.
Pew and Venturebeat seem eager to credit the jump almost purely to Amazon Kindle Fire and other, similar low-priced entrants. That's not entirely unfair since, frankly, cheap and good-enough sells. These are also U.S. numbers, which is the only market Amazon is competing in at the moment.
Apple will likely give us iPad 2 holiday numbers during their Q1 2012 conference call tomorrow. Amazon so far has declined to give specific Kindle numbers, and that may not change any time soon.
One thing is for certain -- it may finally be a tablet market, not just an iPad market, and a growing one at that. (And Apple hasn't even release the anticipated iPad 3 yet, so stay tuned.)
Source: Pew Research Center via VentureBeat
Reader comments
Tablet (read: iPad and Kindle) ownership almost doubled over the holidays
Oooh so much snark in the posting. For what purpose? That's our job, along with MG and Gruber.
I know this is an Apple blog and all, but is it really necessary to bash the competition in every other post on this site? I know you like to deride the Kindle Fire as "cheap and good enough", but for those who have actually used one it provides a great experience and robust ecosystem at a good value.. just because it isnt astronomically overpriced like the iPad doesnt make it a "cheap" product.
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