According to a newly announced Pew Internet study:
The share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January and the same surge in growth also applied to e-book readers, which also jumped from 10% to 19% over the same time period.
The number of Americans owning at least one of these digital reading devices jumped from 18% in December to 29% in January.
That means nearly one in three US citizens owns some sort o pad device. My bet is that people reading this blog are even more likely to own one, being highly educated and interested in information technology. Well, and with enough time to waste that you’re reading my drivel.
So how are you liking it? I love my iPad, which I believe I’ve stated here before more than once. It has changed how I consume media, when and where I do various Internet-related tasks, and lord only knows what else. So yeah, no going back for this kid. How about you?
About Roy Tennant
I wasn’t all that excited to get an e-reader or tablet since I spend so much time on the computer at work all day. I like being disconnected during my off-time, or use my laptop a couple of times a day. After attending the Digipalooza conference in Cleveland put on by OverDrive in July, I was excited enough to want to make a commitment to buy a device and use it regularly. I waited around for the possibility of Christmas sales and was rewarded by the announcement of the Kindle Fire. I have long been an Amazon customer, I already have a Prime account, it seemed like the right match for me. Despite some of the (legitimate) complaints I’ve heard and flaws of a first-generation device, I love it. We have our work cut out for us right now in libraries to make lending e-books to patrons a better customer experience but I am enthusiastic about our future and I love the look on a patron’s face when I’ve shown them how to download a book on the new gadget their grandkids gave them for Christmas and they are finally excited about it.
I have yet to find a way to use my iPad to meaningfully interact with library resources.
Aside from that, its a great way to lose some time.
At my house there is a Nook (that’s been turn into a Google tablet) and a Kindle Fire. Both are nice and great diversions but I don’t really use the devices for anything constructive, not even for reading books (but my wife does). Anyway, the recent explosions at the Chinese factory (Foxconn I believe) from their use of hazardous chemicals to clean the screens and the other life crushing practices that the company practices have made me rethink need of superfluous E-objects.
* correction to my comment* The latest explosion (Thursday) was at the Ri-Teng factory. But there have been explosions at Foxconn in the past.
I’ll go iPad when (at least theoretically) I can do Photoshop* and Dreamweaver on it — so that I can write it off as a business expense with a straight face.
*Adobe’s put out a ‘front-end’ for photoshop that works on the iPad but it’s just a front-end which connects to a workstation where all the real action takes place (if I understand this correctly).