Keeping Tabs on Tablet Owners: Our Latest Research on Usage

Keeping Tabs on Tablet Owners: Our Latest Research on Usage and Behaviors

by Joy Liuzzo June 30, 2011

InsightExpress recently released the 17^th installment of our Digital Consumer Portrait, an ongoing study which has provided industry leading education on the Mobile environment since 2007. Since then our focus has shifted from trends and behaviors around basic mobile phones, to smartphones, and now to the world of tablets.

Yes, tablets continue to take the industry by storm. However, our research shows that iPad ownership in particular is still associated primarily with young men (i.e., early adopters). Among individuals 18-44 years old, at least twice as many men as women own these devices in each age group.

And despite the occasional debut of an iPad in your department’s weekly meeting, we find that their primary use is for personal activities. In fact, among all iPad/tablet owners, only 13 percent use it for work related endeavors, while 62 percent use it mostly for personal endeavors and 25 percent use it equally for both. By gender, men are slightly more likely to use it for work (15 percent) and women are a bit less likely to do so (8 percent).

Gender is certainly at play when it comes to how iPads/tablets end up in our lucky little hands. It appears that women are receiving the devices as gifts, but men are buying them for themselves. With iPad price points still hovering at or above the $500 mark, in this case ‘tis better to receive than to give!

But the expense is well worth the investment, given the range of activities owners report. Among tablet owners who use the devices at least weekly, we find the most popular behaviors are general browsing, email, music and news. These uses break down somewhat differently in men and women, as you can see here:

Maybe I’m biased as a big fan of all things mobile, but tablet adoption and engagement can only go up from here.

Stay tuned for my next post on the ways Moms with children under 18 are relying on their smartphones. I’ll cover the what, where and how. In the meantime, drop me a line if you’d like more details on our tablet research. I’d love to hear from you!