Some people eat, sleep and chew gum, I do genealogy and write...

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Critical mass of tablets among smartphone users

In a Cnet article entitled "U.S. tablet usage hits 'critical mass,' ComScore reports" is it states:
In just the two years since the release of Apple's iPad, the U.S. tablet market has reached a "critical mass," with nearly one in four smartphone owners also using a tablet in the three-month period ending in April, according to data released by market researcher ComScore.
Apparently what is happening is that smartphone users are adopting tablet computers, such as the Apple iPad, in huge numbers. They are also beginning to use the tablets for viewing downloaded movies and TV shows. From personal experience, I can confirm that since my wife just recently started watching movies and TV shows on her iPad 2. Although, I have neither the time nor the inclination to yet do so.

My further perception is that tablets, particularly high-end Android tablets and Apple iPads are becoming serious data platforms. Not only do I see more of them at genealogy conferences, I also see them used in places where computers were never used previously, such as church meetings and social gatherings. It has evidently become acceptable to open you iPad in public and use it to look up addresses, phone numbers or to go onto the Internet and do research.

If you were wondering Kindle Fire sales are slipping dramatically. The purported Apple iPad competitor has fizzled in the first quarter of 2012. See "Amazon's Kindle Fire Sales Fizzle in 2012, Market Share Slips to Third." On the other hand, Apple's iPad sales have climbed from a 4th Quarter 2011 figure of 54.7% to a much higher 68% in Q1 2012. All of this is diametrically counter to the predictions of the pundits during the last year.

I would guess that these figures will not be lost on the genealogical software developers and I would further guess that we will see a lot more apps for genealogy in the near future.

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