Ownership of media tablets among US adults nearly doubled, increasing from 10% to 19%, between the mid-December to early January holiday period, as did U.S. adult ownership of e-book readers.
The number of Americans who owned at least one of the two mobile devices jumped from 18% in December to 29% in January, according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey.
The corresponding statistics on ownership of tablets and e-books hadn’t changed much from mid-2011 into the fall, but as buying surged as the holiday gift-giving season approached, the Pew project team noted.
Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble’s Nook Tablet introduced low-priced tablets, and some previous versions of the Kindle, Nook and other media tablets fell well below $100, which likely contributed to the surge in sales.
The Pew project research team conducts ongoing surveys aimed at tracking growth in ownership of both mobile devices. A pre-holiday survey with a margin of error of +/- 2% was conducted among 2,986 people age 16 and older between Nov. 16 and Dec. 21. Post-holiday data came from one study conducted Jan. 5-8 among 1,000 adults age 18 and older and another from Jan. 12-15 of 1,008 adults. The margin of error for the combined studies is +/- 2.4%.
