SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Tablets and e-readers were such a popular gift over the holidays that the number of people who own them nearly doubled between mid-December and January, a new study found.
A report Monday from the Pew Internet and American Life Project said 29 percent of Americans owned at least one tablet or e-reader as of the beginning of this month. That's up from 18 percent who said the same in December.
The iPad from Apple Inc. is per-haps the best-known example of these gadgets, along with various Kindle devices from Amazon.com and the Nook from Barnes and No-ble. The iPad put tablets on the map and the cheaper Kindle Fire and Nook devices helped get them in the hands of more people.
The percentage of people who own a tablet jumped to 19 from 10 between mid-December and early January. E-book reader ownership also rose to 19 percent from 10 percent of U.S. adults.
Men and women were equally likely to own tablets, and the likelihood of tablet ownership was higher for people with higher household incomes, the report found. Those with higher levels of education were also more likely to own tablets than those who completed fewer years of school.
E-readers, meanwhile, were slightly more common among women.
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(c) Jan. 24, 2012 by Terry Ausenbaugh, H & A Media Group; "The Nugget"
