Pew Internet and Journalism.org has taken a look at the way people read news on different devices.
Their surveys show an increase of Kindle Fire owners as well as iPad owners who use their tablets to read news, primarily through browsers. Consuming news is the popular use for tablets overage.
The iPad used to be the only tablet in town, now 52%, of tablet owners report owning an iPad, compared with 81% a year ago. 48%, now own an Android tablet; about half of them, 21% own Kindle Fires.
Many of those surveyed revelaed that tablet owners are spending more time with news on their tablets.
73% of adults who consume news on their tablet read in-depth articles at least sometimes, including 19% who do so daily. Fully 61% of smartphone news consumers at least sometimes read longer stories, 11% regularly.
Browsers Rule News
- Fully 60% of tablet news users mainly use the browser to get news on their tablet, just 23% get news mostly through apps and 16% use both equally.
- Aapp news users-and those who use both apps and the browser equally-remain in many ways more engaged and deeper news users than those who mostly use their browser.
- The browser is preferred on the smartphone as well (61% get news mostly through a browser, 28% mostly through apps and 11% use both equally)
- Consuming news (everything from the latest headlines to in-depth articles and commentary) ranks as one of the most popular activities on the tablet higher than email, social networking and gaming.
The study is based on a survey conducted from June 29 to August 8 among 9,513 adults including 4,638 mobile device owners. The survey updates trends from a comprehensive, first-of-its-kind study of news consumption habits on tablets conducted a year ago by both organizations.