New mobile form factor, tablets, surged over the holidays. According to Pew Internet and American Life project,
The share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January and the same surge in growth also applied to e-book readers, which also jumped from 10% to 19% over the same time period. —More from Pew
Other interesting facts about tablet ownership,
- Men and women were as likely to own tablets
- Hispanics (21%) and African Americans (21%) are slightly more likely to own tablets than whites (19%)
- Most likely to own tablets are college grads (31%), those with incomes over $75,000 (36%), and adults under 50 (24-27%)
**reposted from the Mobile Gov Blog from the Office of Citizen Services & Innovative Technologies at GSA**
I was literally sitting around with 4 friends this weekend and we were all just staring into our ipads. It was a weird feeling seeing all of us on tablets… not sure why but holding a tablet and browsing is much more intrusive than a phone.
I feel like most of the stuff I can do on a tablet I can do on my phone, and I already have to make a conscious effort to “smell the roses”. That includes deciding times for myself that I can and can’t check my phone unless it’s a call because those can be important (nobody calls anymore unless it’s fairly urgent). As far as tablets go, I would like to own one, but I’d like to own one that I keep at home for Netflix, web browsing while laying down, ect. If I was someone who often goes to meetings it may be convenient as well, but I’m not at that point yet!
I would love a tablet that functions like a laptop. Right now, I guess the closest thing would be the iPad, but that is way out of my price range. For the moment, I use a netbook. I get all the wordprocessing/Office power I need, but don’t have to deal with superfluous programs and hardware, like a CD drive. Ultrabooks were pretty popular at CES this year, from what I’ve heard, but again I think they are too pricey for me right now.
What is an “ultrabook”? I’ve never heard of such a thing!