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.
