12.2m adults in the UK, or 29.3 per cent of UK adults online aged 18 or over, now own a tablet, following bumper sales over the Christmas period, according to the results of an online survey commissioned by Newsworks and carried out by YouGov. Additionally, 7 per cent of respondents who don’t currently own a tablet said they plan to buy one before March 2013.

Most new tablets boughts over the Christmas period were given as gifts, but almost 800,000 adults bought a tablet either for themselves or for the family. The Kindle Fire was the brand most frequently received as a gift (35 per cent), followed by the iPad (24 per cent) and Samsung Galaxy (12 per cent). 48 per cent of tablet owners downloaded between 6 and 40 apps within the first two days of ownership.

50 per cent of tablet owners in the UK are over 45, but ownership is fairly evenly distributed across all age groups:

• 1.3m 18-24 year olds now own a tablet (27 per cent of the age group)
• 2.6m adults aged 25-34 now own a tablet (35 per cent of age group)
• 2.1m tablet owners are aged 35-44 (34 per cent of age group)
• 2.2m tablet owners are aged 45-54 (27 per cent of age group)
• 3.9m adults aged 55+ now own a tablet (26 per cent of age group)

Tablet ownership is still heavily weighted towards ABC1 social classes (65 per cent), but the advent of smaller, more affordable devices had a significant impact on tablet ownership among C2DE social classes this Christmas.

“The UK tablet market is exploding,” said Newsworks CEO, Rufus Olins said: “These devices haven’t been around for long, but after an extraordinary Christmas this research shows nearly 30 per cent of the UK population now owns one. With intense competition driving down prices, more people are treating themselves to a tablet, across all ages and socio-economic groups – and they are spending a lot of time reading newspapers on their new gadgets.”