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US tablet owners to double by 2012
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The number of tablet owners in the US will double in the next year, with 23% of the country's web users, or an estimated 58m people, owning a device by early 2012, according to new research from the Online Publishers Association (OPA). Tablet owners remain in the minority among internet users in the US, but the sector is growing quickly, driven primarily by Apple's iPad, which reinvented the market on its launch. Though a number of would-be competitors have emerged from Samsung and Motorola, they and other competitors have slashed shipments by 10% after dismal sales, while Apple struggles to meet demand.
With the majority of tablet users owning the iPad, it is unsurprising that more than half of consumers prefer to purchase their apps through Apple. With the firm taking a 30% slice of app subscription revenues, app makers may be less happy with the firm's dominance in the sector. For publishers, who are losing out elsewhere online as eyeballs fail to translate into tangible revenues, consumer willingness to pay for apps and subscriptions has seemed like something of a silver bullet. However, a relatively small fraction pay for app content, with 74% of all apps downloaded being for free. Nevertheless, a quarter of those surveyed said they would prefer to buy their apps directly from the publisher, suggesting tablets may yet prove valuable for publisher revenues.
"Some 79% of app downloaders paid for content in the last year, which provides a great opportunity for publishers to generate new revenue streams," says OPA president Pam Horan. "The tablet also provides a rich platform for advertisers with 46% indicating that they found tablet advertising within newspaper and magazine apps to be relevant, unique and interesting
However, while the majority of consumers said they used their tablets to consume content such as news, a lower proportion expressed the same enthusiasm for paying specifically for news or magazine apps. More than half of users said they would pay for games such as Angry Birds, while only 10% said they would purchase a news app.
