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September 30, 2011

Tablet Behavior Will Change Over Time

By Gary Kim, Contributing Editor
Some of what people do on smartphones and tablets can be explained by looking at what they already do on PCs, which is mostly content consumption, email and social networking. Those application profiles do not seem to change much based on the demographics of the tablet or smartphone owner. But commerce-related behaviors likely will change, as tablets become mainstream devices.



Since tablets still are an earlier adopter product, some correlations, particularly any correlations based on household income, likely will change as tablet ownership “goes mainstream.”

In other words, tablet ownership does not “cause” shopping behavior, but is correlated with income. Up to this point, tablet owners are statistically wealthier than “typical” users, so tablet owner economic activity is more a reflection of those demographic facts than anything specific to the tablet device.

Smartphones are further along in the adoption cycle, but as more people start to use them, commerce-related behaviors are likely to change as well, as smartphones also were adopted first by users with higher than typical incomes.

That has consequences. According to the Harrison Group, the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans account for about 50 percent of consumer spending. If you assume that tablet ownership also has been disproportionately concentrated among wealthier Americans, any associations with shopping and spending also will reflect spending habits not so typical of most people. Consumer spending

Consider “travel spending.” People who own iPads also own touch screen smartphones and tend to travel more than twice a year, using both of those devices for travel planning and travel information, according to mobile ad network Greystripe.

Of course, given the higher typical household incomes iPad owners tend to have, none of that is likely very surprising. Quite a lot of application and device behavior related to e-commerce could also be correlated wtih higher income.

Nor would it be unusual to find that people with tablets and smartphones use their devices for just about any popular application, ranging from email and social networking to web surfing, when traveling. For Greystripe, the importance is that since so many travelers use smartphones and tablets for travel-related content and commerce, the mobile platform is ideal for travel advertising.

Perhaps the harder question is whether the tablet actually is a “mobile” device. Both tablets and smartphones get used as much, if not more, at home, than when outside the home. About 59 percent of smart phone usage occurs when users are at home, and a greater percentage of web usage on a smart phone occurs at home, as well. Smart phones used at home

Tablet usage is even more centered around at-home usage, with perhaps 80 percent of total usage occurring at home. Tablets mostly used at home. In fact, tablet owners use their devices at home for just about everything they would use a PC to accomplish.

Nearly seven in 10 US tablet owners reported spending at least an hour per day using the device, including 38 percent  who spent over two hours on it, according to a March 2011 survey from mobile ad network AdMob.

And while just 28 percent consider it their primary computer, 77 percent are spending less time on desktop or laptop PCs since they got a tablet.

More than 40 percent of respondents now spend more time each day with their tablet than with a traditional computer or with a smart phone, and 33 percent use tablets more than they watch TV.

The top tablet activity was playing games. Searching for information, emailing and reading the news rounded out the top four activities, suggesting that web surfing and keeping up with communications are important tablet activities that go beyond pure entertainment, without reaching very far into the realm of genuine productivity.

In March 2011, an AdMob (News - Alert) survey found that 84 percent of tablet owners had played games on their tablets. Some 78 percent searched for information and 74 percent used email. About 61 percent read news and 56 percent used a social network. Some 51 percent watched videos.

Reading ebooks was an activity mentioned by 46 percent of respondents. Some 42 percent reported shopping on their tablets.

Some 67 percent of iPad users also travel at least twice a year, using their tablets for everything from booking flights, to getting directions, to finding the best local restaurant.

Also, iPad users are more likely (60 percent) than iPhone and Android (News - Alert) users (49 percent) to use their device to make a travel booking. Smart phones and tablets used for travel

Of all the iPad owners who responded to Greystripe’s research, 47 percent have used it to book a hotel, 37 percent to book a flight, 28 percent to make a restaurant reservation and 24 percent to rent a car. Overall, 91 percent of iPad users have used their device for a travel related activity of some kind.

However, more often than not, users choose to interact with full websites rather than dedicated apps. Some 69 percent of iPad users and 60 percent of smartphone-owning respondents have used the mobile web to book travel, get travel information or research local attractions, restaurants and activities.

In comparison, 50 percent of iPad and 52 percent of touch smart phone owners have used apps for the same purpose.

Greystripe got the data from 971 users on its network from June 1, 2011 to July 31, 2011. Frequent travelers were defined as people who travel two or more times per year.



Gary Kim (News - Alert) is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Gary’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell
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