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Top-Three Ranked Uses for Media Tablet Owners

Awareness of the numerous applications of tablet computers is at an all time high, thanks in part to the Apple iPad launch. After close to a decade of negligible demand, the tablet market is finally starting to gain some mainstream user appeal.

So, what exactly do future owners say they plan to use a tablets for, once they get their hands on one? No, there's not an app for that, but there is a market study.

New market research from In-Stat identifies the top-three ranked uses for future media tablet owners as -- email, personal information management, and multimedia consumption (audio, video and gaming).

"Last year's small crop of tablets was being touted as potential e-readers; a way to compete against the extremely popular Amazon Kindle lineup," says Stephanie Ethier, Senior Analyst at In-Stat.

Apparently, this next generation of tablets is clearly being marketed as consumer multimedia consumption devices -- positioned to compete squarely against the Apple iPad. Will they take away market share from the current leader? Only time will tell.

In-Stat's latest market study findings include:

- Worldwide tablet shipments are expected to reach over 58 million units in 2014.

- Nearly 55 percent of survey respondents that own tablets spend 9 hours or more using their tablet each week.

- Over 40 percent of future tablet purchasers plan to buy an Apple iPad.

- The strongest shipment growth begins in the latter portion of the In-Stat forecast period.

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