A survey of  tablet users from Admob, Google's mobile advertising agency has some revealing statistics about how tablets are being used.

The survey conducted in the U.S. in March 2011 polled 1,430 people, presumably predominantly iPad owners but no data is presented either on the device used or the survey demographics - so we know nothing of the mix of age, gender and so on.

Even so its findings are interesting.

Asked to select all the ways in which they used their tablet, 84% selected playing games and 78% searching for information. At the other end of the popularity spectrum 42% selected shopping online and 46% reading e-books.

What is also apparent from this chart is that tablet owners tend to use their devices for multiple leisure activities and another question presents some information about what other activities are being displaced:

(Click chart to enlarge)

Asked when and where tablets were used, 69% said they used their tablets more frequently on weekdays than at weekends, 62% used them more frequently at night than during the day and 82% said they used them at home in comparison to 7% at work and 11% on the go.

Perhaps the most interesting finding, from the developer's point of view, is the amount of time that respondents claim to use their tablets:

(Click chart to enlarge)

Fewer than 4% said they used their tablets on average 15 minutes per day or less while 68% claimed to spend at least 1 hour a day on them, 38% opting for two or more hours. 

With a slew of Android tablets coming onto the market in coming months and more than 165 million tablets expected to ship over the next two years there's going to be a huge number of user/hours to fill with games and other content.

Further Reading

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