Tablets, E-readers Gain Popularity

It may be too early to say that turning the page is a thing of the past, but one thing’s for sure: Shoppers like their tablets and e-readers, and the devices are gaining popularity.

They’re becoming so prevalent that the number of tablet and e-reader owners in the United States almost doubled in just a few weeks, according to a recent report by Pew Research Center. The number increased from 10 percent in mid-December to 19 percent in early January. Overall, the number of people who own at least one tablet or e-reader increased from 18 percent in December to 29 percent in January.

Shoppers in their 30s to late 40s were the most likely to own a tablet or e-reader, followed by those 18 to 29 years of age. Women were more likely than men to own one of these devices, with 21 percent of them saying they had either a tablet or e-reader. Sixteen percent of men said they owned one, the report notes.

The report’s results are “striking,” says Lee Rainie, the director of Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. That’s because from the middle of 2011 to the fall, the number of owners of tablets and e-readers had not changed much.

“However, as the holiday gift-giving season approached, the marketplace for both devices dramatically shifted,” he notes in the study. “In the tablet world, Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet were introduced at considerably cheaper prices than other tablets. In the e-book reader world, some versions of the Kindle and Nook and other readers fell well below $100.”

The increase in ownership was most notable among people with higher education levels and those who made more than $75,000 a year, the report finds.