Twelve Things Every Market Needs to Know About Tablets from Business 2 Community by Maura Mitchell

Twelve Things Every Market Needs to Know About Tablets:

Tablet ownership is growing so rapidly that forecasters can’t revise their estimates fast enough.

Marketers are scrambling to catch up with the trend too.
Here are the fast facts you need to know to get up to speed quickly and impress your clients or your boss.
1. Tablets are growing faster than any other consumer electronics device in history. More tablets were sold in their first 2 years of existence than smartphones in their first 7.  Household penetration jumped from 11% to 19% over the 2011 holiday season.
2. Everyone is buying tablets – they don’t just appeal to one group.  Boomers are purchasing them fastest.  One quarter of college kids now have one.  Parents are hiding their tablets so that their young kids and Tweens don’t take over the devices.
3. Tablets will be mainstream very soon.  Roughly a third of all online US households will own a tablet by 2014, according to eMarketer (And there’s a good chance that percentage will be revised upward later this year).
4. People are very attached to their tablets.  77% of owners use theirs every day for an average of ninety minutes.
5. Consumers are willing to pay for content on tablets.  50% of tablet owners have spent money to download a book or movie, and 40% have forked over cash to buy a magazine.  That’s a huge bonus given that content viewed on laptops and desktops is still subject to the mantra “If it’s on the Internet it should be free.”
6. Tablets drive online shopping. Tablet shoppers spend 54% more than smartphone shoppers and 20% more than laptop shoppers. People who access websites via tablets are three times as likely to buy as those who use smartphones.
7. Almost half of all tablet owners use them while watching TV, making the gadgets a powerful force in the social TV trend.
8.  Screen size and clarity are driving consumers’ love affair with these devices. Tablets deliver what consumers hoped to get from their smartphones but secretly knew was impossible on a small screen.
9. Consumers will replace other devices with tablets.  46% of consumers think tablets will ultimately be used instead of laptops and desktops.  30% of Gen Y tablet buyers said they now use their tablet instead of another device.
What do tablet trends mean for your marketing plans?
10. It’s no longer enough to have a mobile strategy.  Brands now need separate smartphone and tablet strategies and tactics.
11. You need to optimize your website for tablets, taking into account that the new iPad’s screen resolution is twice that of the old one.  This is particularly important because tablet owners wait less than two seconds for a website to load before they move on and oftentimes never return.
12. It’s critical to create a tablet app that includes shopping.  56% of owners have downloaded one shopping app.  Shouldn’t yours be their second?
What would you add to the list of “must knows” about the tablet trend?