5 ms·

Study shows tablets are mostly used for mails, games, social networking,& search

31 points by denzil_correa 14y ago

duiker101 14y ago
So....all the things the other portable devices are used for? what else did you expected?
- DGCA 14y ago
  Did you read the study? Don't just comment on headlines.
sebslomski 14y ago
Is there anything besides that in the consumer market?
- stephengillie 14y ago
  mails, games, social networking, search In the consumer market - the market for consumers - that is, those who consume (content) - what other content categories can be named? What about the "creator" market? From apps to videos to photochops to blog posts to video gaming blog posts?
josteink 14y ago
So basically the "People are not buying PCs, they are buying iPads"-meme should stop here then? Good good.
- swombat 14y ago
  On the contrary. Mail, games, social networking and search are 90+% of what most normal people do with a computer. So people are buying iPads instead of computers because they work better for the most common use cases.
  - WayneDB 14y ago
    Do you have a citation for that? According to Nielsen, Americans spend about 35% on "Other", so I'd like to know where your 90% figure comes from. Page 3 here - http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/ http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/ Older numbers from 2010 - http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/what-americans-do-online-social-media-and-games-dominate-activity/ http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/what-ameri... At the very least, I think the meme is inaccurate.
    - nmcfarl 14y ago
      Not commenting on anything else here, anecdotally the meme is very accurate. All of my relatives in their 50's and older (and their friends) bought cheap netbooks 5 years ago, and every last one of them is replacing them with iPads as they break, etc. This is I think, oddly, the majority of the iPad owners I know (the rest are young(ish) geeks, like me, for whom the iPad is a 3rd or 5th device.) From my perspective this meme is dead on.
  - jiggy2011 14y ago
    Not sure how well that logic holds. When I buy a computer (or anything really) I don't look for something that does 90% of what I want to do or what my old device could do. I want something that can do everything that I currently do as well as some stuff that I think I might like to do in the future. For example with my car. I'd say I do about 50% of my driving with only me in the car, about another 40% of it with 1 other passenger and maybe only 10% with 2 or more passengers. I also drive most of the time with an almost empty boot. So in that case I should just buy a 2 seater car with a small boot, since a 2 seater car would probably be either cooler or more economical. But of course I drive a 5 seater car with a reasonable size boot because I don't want the inconvenience of not being able to do that 10% use case. On the other hand, if I was going to buy a second car in addition then it would make perfect sense to get a smaller 2 seater car.
bluetidepro 14y ago
This would make complete sense based on the majority of popular apps on the various app stores. The next big thing I would imagine we will see is using tablets for books/reading, notes/note-taking, and educational usage. Also, I would imagine this will change drastically when the demographics of users start to get more wide. For example, when price points get lower and lower (but the advancements increase) and you start seeing tablets being a much more plausible computer replacement.
- DGCA 14y ago
  I don't think price is what keeps people from buying tablets, since a decent one can be had for $200. I think what keeps certain people, and I would say this is a large number, from buying tablets is that they don't see a need for one. Tablets aren't meant to do the same tasks as a desktop/laptop that is why they won't replace them.
  - ricardobeat 14y ago
    Wow, took a whole 5 minutes until we got to the tablet vs desktop debate.
    - TeMPOraL 14y ago
      As a tablet owner who had high expectations when buying one, I - to my dismay - found out that it's mostly useless. I mean, it's a great device for consuming news and playing games, but other than that it hardly has any practical / creative application that a PC wouldn't do better. I understand that it's a new and young technology, but it hurts me to see that something that could be much more, goes in the direction of wasting people's time with games and apps that Do Only One Thing, But Do Them Poory. That's why what I would like to see is a debate about how to make tablets more practical; how those big, handheld, multitouch screens can be used for making the world a better place.
      - marshray 14y ago
        My experience is similar to yours. What would you do to make tablets better?
doyoulikeworms 14y ago
Honestly, I can't think of much else tablets can do except for web browsing.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- marshray 14y ago
  They're awesome for maps/navigation.
nuje 14y ago
As a new Nexus 7 owner my favourite tablet feature is: I can do my Android stuff without worrying about running my phone out of battery. Now if it only fit in my pocket...
cake 14y ago
Only 33 participants, I don't think that it is statistically significative.
- drd 14y ago
  I agree, normally in a research the size of sample should be proportional to the size of the population. The sample size of 33 doesn’t say anything while the size of population is a few million. Specially, when it is easy to access this population, this is not a research on a rare type of disease.
jiggy2011 14y ago
"mails, games, social networking,& search" Isn't that what computers in general are mostly used for?
- ThomasQue 14y ago
  My reaction too, then I realized that's what people do when they have an internet access. But they do some other things if the device lets them : on a desktop computer, they use office software and on a phone... they call and send SMS. To me a tablet is essentially the least capable internet connected device.
hnriot 14y ago
The actual article has a table with more than the title submitted would suggest, it also includes playing music, lightweight content creation (probably micro blogging would be my guess), managing finances and all the other things that people routinely use a computer (or any format) for. The missing category was programming but since the "study" had 33 participants it's utterly useless anyway. Their conclusion validates what is common knowledge, that tablets can pretty much do anytimg any other computer can and people use them for everything. I was a little surprised to see managing finances because my experience is that I have seen people do this with their phone and laptops but not tablets. The main reason I think is that the tablet goes places laptops wouldn't do as conveniently and (my friends at least) trust the cellula data privacy more than coffee shop wifi privacy.
kennon 14y ago
I think it'll be interesting to see if there are households who have a tablet but not a desktop/laptop. Until that happens, it still feels like a luxury product.
- ZeroGravitas 14y ago
  My elderly (75) in-laws are one such household, and I think that's spreading in their demographic.
51Cards 14y ago
aka Consumption, consumption, consumption. I think this has been known to be the best use for tablets for awhile now. Not saying you can't create with a tablet but the cases where it is the best device for content creation are fairly few and far between IMO. Not saying any of the above is bad. Most people do exactly the above on the web, consume content while contributing small bits here and there (a photo, a tweet, etc.) Hence the popularity of the tablet format.
typicalrunt 14y ago
The table of activities in the study confirms my worries about tablets: that they are primarily used for consumption. I'm noticing a trend amongst people (in general) to whom I speak with that they are no longer creating and instead consuming. This is akin to the mis-interpreted version of "Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out" [1] where your devices turn you into a zombie. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_on,_tune_in,_drop_out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_on,_tune_in,_drop_out
Splines 14y ago
I'm tepid on the Surface RT but I'm really looking forwards to the Surface Pro - finally a tablet that I can attach a controller to. IMO Microsoft missed a bit by not integrating the 360 wireless adapter into the chassis, but I suppose it wasn't a priority.
marshray 14y ago
What this seems to be suggesting is that tablets are not replacing PCs, they're more like a portable WebTV. :-P

31 points by denzil_correa 14y ago

duiker101 14y ago

So....all the things the other portable devices are used for? what else did you expected?

DGCA 14y ago
Did you read the study? Don't just comment on headlines.

sebslomski 14y ago

Is there anything besides that in the consumer market?

stephengillie 14y ago
mails, games, social networking, search In the consumer market - the market for consumers - that is, those who consume (content) - what other content categories can be named? What about the "creator" market? From apps to videos to photochops to blog posts to video gaming blog posts?

josteink 14y ago

So basically the "People are not buying PCs, they are buying iPads"-meme should stop here then? Good good.

swombat 14y ago
On the contrary. Mail, games, social networking and search are 90+% of what most normal people do with a computer. So people are buying iPads instead of computers because they work better for the most common use cases.
- WayneDB 14y ago
  Do you have a citation for that? According to Nielsen, Americans spend about 35% on "Other", so I'd like to know where your 90% figure comes from. Page 3 here - http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/ http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/ Older numbers from 2010 - http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/what-americans-do-online-social-media-and-games-dominate-activity/ http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/what-ameri... At the very least, I think the meme is inaccurate.
  - nmcfarl 14y ago
    Not commenting on anything else here, anecdotally the meme is very accurate. All of my relatives in their 50's and older (and their friends) bought cheap netbooks 5 years ago, and every last one of them is replacing them with iPads as they break, etc. This is I think, oddly, the majority of the iPad owners I know (the rest are young(ish) geeks, like me, for whom the iPad is a 3rd or 5th device.) From my perspective this meme is dead on.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  Not sure how well that logic holds. When I buy a computer (or anything really) I don't look for something that does 90% of what I want to do or what my old device could do. I want something that can do everything that I currently do as well as some stuff that I think I might like to do in the future. For example with my car. I'd say I do about 50% of my driving with only me in the car, about another 40% of it with 1 other passenger and maybe only 10% with 2 or more passengers. I also drive most of the time with an almost empty boot. So in that case I should just buy a 2 seater car with a small boot, since a 2 seater car would probably be either cooler or more economical. But of course I drive a 5 seater car with a reasonable size boot because I don't want the inconvenience of not being able to do that 10% use case. On the other hand, if I was going to buy a second car in addition then it would make perfect sense to get a smaller 2 seater car.

bluetidepro 14y ago

This would make complete sense based on the majority of popular apps on the various app stores. The next big thing I would imagine we will see is using tablets for books/reading, notes/note-taking, and educational usage. Also, I would imagine this will change drastically when the demographics of users start to get more wide. For example, when price points get lower and lower (but the advancements increase) and you start seeing tablets being a much more plausible computer replacement.

DGCA 14y ago
I don't think price is what keeps people from buying tablets, since a decent one can be had for $200. I think what keeps certain people, and I would say this is a large number, from buying tablets is that they don't see a need for one. Tablets aren't meant to do the same tasks as a desktop/laptop that is why they won't replace them.
- ricardobeat 14y ago
  Wow, took a whole 5 minutes until we got to the tablet vs desktop debate.
  - TeMPOraL 14y ago
    As a tablet owner who had high expectations when buying one, I - to my dismay - found out that it's mostly useless. I mean, it's a great device for consuming news and playing games, but other than that it hardly has any practical / creative application that a PC wouldn't do better. I understand that it's a new and young technology, but it hurts me to see that something that could be much more, goes in the direction of wasting people's time with games and apps that Do Only One Thing, But Do Them Poory. That's why what I would like to see is a debate about how to make tablets more practical; how those big, handheld, multitouch screens can be used for making the world a better place.
    - marshray 14y ago
      My experience is similar to yours. What would you do to make tablets better?

doyoulikeworms 14y ago

Honestly, I can't think of much else tablets can do except for web browsing.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
marshray 14y ago
They're awesome for maps/navigation.

nuje 14y ago

As a new Nexus 7 owner my favourite tablet feature is: I can do my Android stuff without worrying about running my phone out of battery. Now if it only fit in my pocket...

cake 14y ago

Only 33 participants, I don't think that it is statistically significative.

drd 14y ago
I agree, normally in a research the size of sample should be proportional to the size of the population. The sample size of 33 doesn’t say anything while the size of population is a few million. Specially, when it is easy to access this population, this is not a research on a rare type of disease.

jiggy2011 14y ago

"mails, games, social networking,& search" Isn't that what computers in general are mostly used for?

ThomasQue 14y ago
My reaction too, then I realized that's what people do when they have an internet access. But they do some other things if the device lets them : on a desktop computer, they use office software and on a phone... they call and send SMS. To me a tablet is essentially the least capable internet connected device.

hnriot 14y ago

The actual article has a table with more than the title submitted would suggest, it also includes playing music, lightweight content creation (probably micro blogging would be my guess), managing finances and all the other things that people routinely use a computer (or any format) for. The missing category was programming but since the "study" had 33 participants it's utterly useless anyway. Their conclusion validates what is common knowledge, that tablets can pretty much do anytimg any other computer can and people use them for everything. I was a little surprised to see managing finances because my experience is that I have seen people do this with their phone and laptops but not tablets. The main reason I think is that the tablet goes places laptops wouldn't do as conveniently and (my friends at least) trust the cellula data privacy more than coffee shop wifi privacy.

kennon 14y ago

I think it'll be interesting to see if there are households who have a tablet but not a desktop/laptop. Until that happens, it still feels like a luxury product.

ZeroGravitas 14y ago
My elderly (75) in-laws are one such household, and I think that's spreading in their demographic.

51Cards 14y ago

aka Consumption, consumption, consumption. I think this has been known to be the best use for tablets for awhile now. Not saying you can't create with a tablet but the cases where it is the best device for content creation are fairly few and far between IMO. Not saying any of the above is bad. Most people do exactly the above on the web, consume content while contributing small bits here and there (a photo, a tweet, etc.) Hence the popularity of the tablet format.

typicalrunt 14y ago

The table of activities in the study confirms my worries about tablets: that they are primarily used for consumption. I'm noticing a trend amongst people (in general) to whom I speak with that they are no longer creating and instead consuming. This is akin to the mis-interpreted version of "Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out" [1] where your devices turn you into a zombie. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_on,_tune_in,_drop_out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_on,_tune_in,_drop_out

Splines 14y ago

I'm tepid on the Surface RT but I'm really looking forwards to the Surface Pro - finally a tablet that I can attach a controller to. IMO Microsoft missed a bit by not integrating the 360 wireless adapter into the chassis, but I suppose it wasn't a priority.

marshray 14y ago

What this seems to be suggesting is that tablets are not replacing PCs, they're more like a portable WebTV. :-P