Tablets: History’s Fastest-Growing Technology

By Chanel Smith, EMEA Editor (@PYMNTS_EMEA)

We are in the midst of a digital revolution, and amongst other popular technologies in the market, the tablet is quickly becoming ubiquitous. In fact, recent research from Netbiscuits reported that tablets are the fastest-growing technology in all of history. Even emerging markets are joining the movement, as the study revealed that India’s tablet sales increased by 400 percent in 2012, and that tablet sales jumped 101 percent in Southeast Asia last year as well.

Now that researchers have confirmed that tablet use is on the rise, the paramount question then becomes: What are consumers doing on their tablets?

Market Research

Netbiscuits reported that the tablet market had a year-on-year growth of 65 percent by 2013. It was also revealed that the market has made room for new competitors other than Apple’s iPad. In 2012, 60 percent of tablet sales were attributed to Apple, but that number has fallen to just 33 percent in 2013. Android tablet sales were reported at 38 percent in 2012, and rose to 63 percent in 2013.

What Are Consumers Doing On Tablets?

Netbiscuits surveyed participants from the U.S., the UK, Germany and France. When asked what people were doing on their tablets everyday, some of the top responses included: searching (93 percent), social networking (83 percent), gaming (82 percent) online shopping (78 percent), mobile banking (75 percent), and more. Across all four countries, web searching is reported to be the number one activity, and in the U.S., the UK, and France, online shopping was listed among the top five.

Interestingly, the survey discovered that countries with lower PC penetration rates were also the locations where the most consumers reported to use tablets for online searches each day. The top three countries include India, Brazil and China. Consumers who spend over an hour each day shopping online through mobile tablets have the highest activity in Brazil (16 percent), India (14 percent) and the U.A.E. (12 percent).

Retailers that lack a mobile application or mobile response site should beware of losing customers due to poor adaption. Netbiscuits reported that 46 percent of consumers who claim to have a bad tablet website experience will look to competitor websites to continue business.

To view the complete Netbiscuits infographic click here, or look below.