January 23, 2012
In yet more evidence that tablet computers like Apple’s popular iPad are shaking up the computer industry, new numbers from the Pew Internet & American Life Project find that the number of people who own a tablet computer jumped from 10% to 19% from the middle of December to January. From Pew:
These findings are striking because they come after a period from mid-2011 into the autumn in which there was not much change in the ownership of tablets and e-book readers. However, as the holiday gift-giving season approached, the marketplace for both devices dramatically shifted. In the tablet world, Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes and 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.