A Third of US Adults Will Own a Tablet by 2016

More than 112m Americans – a third of the US adult population – will own a Tablet in 2016, according to Forrester Research. Meanwhile, there will be nearly 106m Tablet owners in the EU 7 – France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.

Ahead of todays iPad announcement, Forrester has released its US Consumer Tablet Forecast Update, 2011 to 2016, which shows a wide gap between the iPad and its competitors. 73 per cent own an iPad, with a variety of Android devices coming in a distant second. And that doesnt look likely to change – asked which brand of Tablets they are considering buying in the future, 61 per cent named the iPad. 24 per cent, meanwhile, are considering an Amazon device.

“For better or for worse, price is becoming a more important factor in tablet choice. But it’s not the only factor, or even the primary one,” says Sarah Rotman Epps, senior analyst at Forrester. “Our data shows that the top reason consumers don’t buy tablets isn’t because of price, or technology – it’s because they say I don’t think I need it. It’s about what you can do with the device, which is why Apple and Amazon have succeeded in the US, where pure hardware plays have failed.”