Apple
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- hans_glib0
Eight years after Apple launched the iPad, tablet computing appears to be falling out of favour.
Fifty-eight per cent of British homes have one but ownership has plateaued in the past three years. Smartphone use has continued to rise over the same period, however, suggesting that consumers are happy with a smaller screen for streaming and surfing, tasks previously associated with larger computers.
About 78 per cent of British adults now use a smartphone, Ofcom figures indicate, making them the most popular internet-connected device.
Others that have grown in popularity in the past few years include smart TVs (now owned by 42 per cent), smart watches and other wearable technology such as fitness trackers (20 per cent).
The research suggests that smart speakers, such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, can be found in 13 per cent of homes, while five per cent of people have a virtual-reality headset.
This is the first time that ownership of the new devices has been tracked. Uptake is expected to increase before Christmas as people buy smart speakers in particular as gifts.
The figures also show that shoppers are turning away from DVD players and desktop computers. Fewer than a third of homes now have desktop devices, according to the regulator’s survey, released before the Black Friday sales. The proportion with a DVD player has fallen from about 80 per cent in 2010 to 64 per cent today. Ownership of games consoles has also stagnated, from 47 per cent in 2009 to 44 per cent today.
Ian Macrae, Ofcom’s director of market intelligence, said: “The devices we rely on are constantly changing. The growth in popularity of streaming services has created tremendous demand for connected TVs, which, for many people, are replacing DVD players, and the smartphone is replacing several other devices at once.
“The range of connected devices is expanding rapidly. Smart speakers really took off last year and along with other smart home devices will again be ones to watch this year.”
The figures were drawn from the latest Ofcom Communications Market Report. It found evidence of growing “digital dependency”, with consumers checking smartphones every 12 minutes on average and one person in five spending more than 40 hours a week online. The report also disclosed that the amount of time people spent talking by phone had fallen with the growing use of messaging apps.
When Apple released iPads in 2010 analysts said that their ease of use would make them popular with families and older people. A study last year found that more than a quarter of over-75s used a tablet device, up from 15 per cent in 2015.
- < from today's paperhans_glib
- Interesting but nothing surprising.
Tablets are dead.Hayzilla - Yeah, I think so. Personally, I think Apple really dropped the ball by not porting OSX to ipads. iOS has killed it's functionality for a lot of people.formed
- I think its more to do with the increase in phone size coupled with the fact everyone has owned tablets for a few years now and realised it offers nothin uniqueHayzilla
- The only people I see with tablets still are children.section_014