Over A Quarter Of Tablet Owners Are Dumping Their Desktop Computers

Tablet users they are sometimes mysterious creatures. Do they mainly read books or surf the ‘net? Do they just game? And have they abandoned their desktops, content just to surf on the couch?

Turns out it’s a combination of all the above, but the primary activity is gaming. According to Google’s AdMob survey of US tablet users, 84% of owners game. And since there was no information on the type of tablets owned, we are left to imagine which games people are playing. In a close second was searching for information (78%) and then emailing was third (74%).

So should desktop computer manufacturers start worrying about decreasing sales?

Not yet.

Only 28% of respondents said the tablet is their primary computer; still, that’s a higher number than I expected. Also, 77% of respondents said their desktop/laptop usage had decreased.

The less popular activities on tablets, although they are just a hair under a majority, are shopping (42%), reading e-books (46%), and consuming entertainment (51%).

Clearly, people do treat their tablets as entertainment devices–some spending more time with their tablet than watching TV. But the fact that just over a quarter of people replaced their primary computer with a tablet is something to watch. Looks like we weren’t really using those desktop computers to their full abilities.

[Google via The Guardian]