Nearly half – 45% – of Anglophone Canadians 18+ now own a tablet, up from 34% just one year ago, according to the latest report from Media Technology Monitor (MTM).
The report, The Rise of Tablet Computers, says that 41% of tablet owners have access to more than one tablet, with 17% saying they have access to three or more devices.
While Samsung has been putting the “Tab” in tablet (its signature Galaxy Tab device is now used by 7% of Anglophones), it has a long way to go before usurping the iPad as the device of choice. The Apple device is now used by 29% of Anglophones.
While tablet penetration is higher among higher-income households, nearly one-third (29%) of households with an annual income below $35,000 also reported owning a device.
The devices are used for a wide variety of activities, led by accessing the internet (89%), sending/receiving e-mail (69%) and reading online news (54%).
While smartphones and tablets are both used for activities where screen size is not important, such as listening to audio (31% of tablet owners and 30% of smartphone owners) and accessing social networks (54% versus 53%), the study found that screen size matters when it comes to watching video.
While half of tablet owners say they use the device to watch video, that number falls to 28% among smartphone owners. Similarly, while 22% of tablet owners watch Netflix on the device, only 7% of smartphone owners access the streaming video service via their device.
Tablet owners are also particularly avid internet users, spending 25.3 hours per week online compared with 20.4 hours per week for the average Anglophone. Traditional media consumption for the two groups is almost identical: 14 hours of TV per week for tablet owners versus 14.3 hours per week for the general Anglophone population, and identical radio listening of 9.3 hours for both groups.
Tablets also lend themselves to the multi-screen TV experience, with 83% of owners saying they have accessed the Internet while watching TV, compared with only 67% of the Anglophone population. More than half (51%) of tablet owners said they always or often multi-task when watching TV.
