MediaPost reporting: The
share of U.S. adults who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to
19% during the holiday season, fueled in part by the launch of less
expensive
devices like the Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet,
according to a new
study.
The research by the Pew Internet & American Life
Project found that e-reader ownership also jumped from 10% to 19%
between mid-
December and mid-January, while the proportion of Americans with either
type of device climbed from 18% to 29%.
The surge is all the
more
striking because it follows a period from mid-2011 into the fall, when
there was little change in the growth of tablet and e-reader adoption.
But following the rollouts of the $199 Kindle Fire and the $250 Nook
Tablet in mid-November -- taking on the $499 iPad -- consumers began
opening
up their wallets in large numbers.
“In the time we have been
doing surveys about the adoption and use of digital technology, we have
never seen growth quite like this,” noted Lee Rainie, director of Pew’s
Internet & American Life Project. “These findings have
major implications for every media company -- especially book
publishers, everyone in a knowledge business, and key community
institutions like
libraries. They show how radically the tectonic plates of information
creation and dissemination are shifting under our feet.”
While
Amazon has not revealed exactly how many Kindle Fires it sold in the
fourth quarter, it said in December it was selling Kindle devices
overall at a
rate of 1 million a week. The Fire has been its top-selling product
since it went on sale. Wall Street analysts had projected Amazon sold as
many as 5
million Kindle Fires in the quarter.
Barnes & Noble touted
strong sales of its Nook devices over the holidays, though conceding
Nook
Tablet sales didn’t meet expectations. The company had said it is
considering spinning off its Nook business a separate unit to capitalize
on
its growth as a digital media platform.
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