Study: Tablets dominate media consumption

Although tablets still make up a small portion of total PC sales, its usage now represents 20 percent of weekly digital media consumption, according to a new study by Strategy Analytics. A typical user spends 1.5 hours per day on average browsing content and other communication-based apps, PC Mag reported.

Strategy Analytics earlier estimated that 15.1 million tablets were sold during the second quarter. According to IDC, 84.4 million PCs were sold worldwide in the same period. This means the tablet market makes up 18 percent of the PC market.

Those numbers, however, do not represent the installed base of PCs, a much higher number. According to Gartner, the installed base of PCs in the home is expected to increase from 1.4 billion in 2010 to 2.3 billion by 2015. Blogger Jon Gruber of Daring Fireball estimated an installed base of 30.08 million tablets, with nearly all Apple iPads. This means the total number of tablets only represent 2 percent of the 2010 PC market, and their media consumption is “disproportionate indeed,” PC Mag reported.

More than 25 percent of all tablet usage is dedicated to web browsing and email, according to the study.

"For both existing tablet owners and potential buyers, Strategy Analytics analysis reveals that tablets are most used for web browsing," said Martin Bradley, the author of the Strategy Analytics report. "Another 40 percent of tablet use can be attributed to media and app store applications. Existing tablet owners enjoy exploring app store offerings, whereas future tablet buyers express interest in accessing readily available media store content."

Image: Fotoboer.nl via flickr