Tablets Changing App Behavior?

Today’s early tablet adopters apparently are using print media, PCs, and other devices less often than they used to, said Sarah Rotman Epps, Forrester Research analyst. Some 31 percent of tablet owners surveyed report they are using their PCs less, while 26 percent are using their notebooks or laptops less.

For some of us, the most important implications of tablet use are not the devices tablets compete with, but the ways application usage and time commitments change. 

It isn't clear whether tomorrow's mainstream adopters will use their tablets in the same way that early adopters do. But it seems likely they will. The bigger question might be whether tablet growth rates can continue at high rates given all the other devices consumers will want to buy as well.

Consumers who intend to buy a tablet in the next six months are almost twice as likely as US online consumers in general to want a new HDTV set, and they’re more than twice as likely to want an eReader, Blu-ray player, 3D HDTV, Xbox 360 with Kinect, and a host of other gadgets, says Rotman Epps.

One might well question whether it is possible for consumers to manage all that in the next six months. When compared with current tablet owners, would-be tablet

buyers have 21 percent lower incomes, are 51 percent more likely to set a spending limit for technology purchases, and are 75 percent more likely to say they delay other purchases to buy a new gadget.

There are some scenarios where PCs still will remain the preferred device. Office settings, where heavy content production is required, still seems to be the province of the PC. It might be reasonable to predict that tablets and smart phones will largely be preferred elsewhere than the office.

Tablets also seem poised to displace portable game players, but not consoles. Casual gaming seems to work fine on tablets, while more-complex games still require a console.

Video consumption in the living room still seems the province of the HDTV, while PCs are used at work and in offices, while tablets will be used elsewhere. There seems little reason to dispute the prediction that tablets will take share from offline products, PCs and e-readers.