The main reason people buy media tablets is the form factor: tablet users prefer their size and shape to that of PCs. People are now using tablets for daily personal activities, according to a new survey by Gartner, Inc. The survey found that the main activities that are moving from PCs to media tablets are: checking email (81%), reading the news (69%), checking the weather forecast (63%), social networking (62%) and gaming (60%).
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The study was done at the end of 2011 in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.
According to the survey, media tablets play a more dominant role in the home than mobile phones or PCs with the highest usage taking place in the living room (87%), bedroom (65%) and kitchen (47%).
Respondents said they purchased a media tablet rather than a PC for its convenience, small size and light weight.
However, next to media tablets, mobile phones are the devices most used throughout the day, Gartner noted. Across all Internet activities conducted on mobile phones, checking email (74%) and social networking (57%) are the most common activities, followed by gaming (42%), checking the news (40%) and listening to music (40%). Watching live TV remains a very limited activity for mobile phone users (5%), but on-demand content has a slightly broader reach (15%).
