New Study Suggests iOS and Android Tablet Usage Are Close to Parity Now

[dgstorm]

According to a new report from The Online Publishers Association (OPA), Android tablets may be a lot closer in total adoption to the iPad than all the media hype for Apple would suggest. Their study shows a rapid growth in tablet usage over the past year, and especially for Android at the expense of iOS. Their study indicates that Google's Android now captures 51% of tablet ownership vs. Apple's iOS with 52%. This is in contrast to their same report a year ago that favored the iPad at 72% and Android at 32%. A full twenty percent swing in Android's favor in terms of tablet ownership.

Now, when you look at these numbers you may immediately notice something "hinky." The totals add up to over 100%. This is because their study also tries to factor in the fact that some folks out there own both an iPad and an Android tablet. Digging deeper into the study we also see a few things. First, this large surge for Android is primarily due to the Amazon Kindle Fire. These would lead to the conclusion that this is the way Android should focus it's competitive edge against Apple. Luckily, all the industry intel suggests that is precisely what Google and it's OEMs plan to do.

There are also some additional interesting figures to go along with this study. Here's a quote with some more details,

Tablet usage overall for accessing the internet has now risen to 31 percent in the US, up from 12 percent last year, which is 74 million more tablet users. The adoption rate is expected to continue its climb, reaching 47 percent penetration by 2013. Currently, tablet users use their devices for 13.9 hours per week on average, 74 percent of them use it daily, and 60 percent use it several times a day.

About 94 percent of tablet usage is for accessing content and information, followed by internet usage at 67 percent, and checking email at 66 percent. Of the content-related activities, 54 percent is for watching videos, 49 percent for getting weather information, 37 percent for national news, and 36 percent for entertainment content.

Obviously, this was a survey style study, so it's hard to gauge just how accurate it is. Still, even if the figures are only half correct, then Android tablets are doing a lot better than many folks in the industry are predicting. Perhaps it just took a bit longer for 'Andy' to find his pace with Android tablets than it did with Android smartphones.

Source: SlashGear and OPA

 

[finndo77]

Nook Tablet vs. iPad 3

I think the best number on that chart is that the usage of Barnes And Noble's Nook Tablet are almost equal to the iPad3 (% the same, but actual numbers are probably off), I own 2 NTs and no iAnything. so I find it amusing.


oops.. I meant the HP TouchPad numbers... see what happens when humans try to multi-multi-task...

 

[tjk629]

Sounds like the Kindle Fire really boosted it for Android. Too bad it it's a Gingerbread device, and so customized that it really isn't android out of the box.

 

[akhenax]

I was surprised to see the HP Touchpad on that chart. Whaaaa? :icon_eek:

 

[trestevenson]

I was surprised to see the HP Touchpad on that chart. Whaaaa? :icon_eek:

I thought the same thing, and I own one! :laugh: