Tablets are becoming the choice for home use.
Consumers are using tablet computers more and PCs less to check email, play games and surf the Internet at home at night, with many saying they don’t like to let anyone else to share their tablets, according to a new survey from Gartner Inc.
The top five tablet activities are checking email (81 percent), reading the news (69 percent), checking the weather forecast (63 percent), social networking (62 percent) and gaming (60 percent).
“The survey found that more than 50 percent of media tablet owners prefer to read news, magazines and books on screen, rather than on paper. On average, one in three respondents used their media tablets to read a book, compared with 13 percent for mobile PCs, and 7 percent for mobile phones.”
And while that doesn’t mean paperless homes anytime soon, it does mean more users see the appeal of tablets, saying they use the gadgets because they’re lightweight, portable and convenient. Tablets are most used at home on weeknights in the living room, with Gartner noting that tablet users say they use their PCs 20 percent less on the weekends.
As for sharing, many tablet owners say hands off to other users. Forty-five percent of respondents said they “do not share their tablet at all,” Gartner said. “This confirms that a media tablet is almost as personal as a mobile phone in terms of usage and consumer attitude.”
Gartner also found that men tend to buy a media tablet for themselves, while women tend to receive them as gifts.
