Smart phones also have subsumed the MP3 player, to a great extent. Smart phones likewise have generally replaced cameras, alarm clocks and GPS units.
You might also wonder if the other trend could materialize, namely the tablet becoming a replacement for a smart phone. That seems generally unlikely for the 10-inch version of the tablet.
But with tablets now available in seven-inch screen form factors, with some smart phones pushing up to five inches screen size, there is greater potential for a tablet to become a replacement for a smart phone. After all, the form factor difference is between five inches and seven inches.
More important is the relative importance of “voice” and “content consumption” as computing appliance functions. Virtually all computing appliances now are becoming ways people interact with, and consume, all sorts of media and content, even if the smart phone also does duty as the “voice” appliance.
In fact, smart phone and PC user behavior really is converging. In October 2012 about 55 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used downloaded apps, while 53 percent used a browser. About 39 percent used social networking apps, 34 percent played games and 29 percent listened to music, according to comScore. That isn’t so different from what most people do on PCs, to say nothing of tablets.
In December 2011, 8.2 percent of all web page views occurred on devices other than PCs, for example, with mobile devices accounting for 5.2 percent of traffic, tablets driving 2.5 percent, according to the latest Nielsen Cross-Platform Report.
In 2011, the majority of all mobile phone owners consumed mobile media on their smart phones and tablet devices, marking an important milestone in the evolution of mobile from primarily a
communication device to a content consumption tool.
| Mobile Content Usage 3 Month Avg. Ending Oct. 2012 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Jul. 2012 Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers (Smartphone & Non-Smartphone) Ages 13+ | |||
| Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers | |||
| Jul-12 | Oct-12 | Point Change | |
| Total Mobile Subscribers | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
| Sent text message to another phone | 75.6% | 75.9% | 0.3 |
| Used downloaded apps | 52.6% | 54.5% | 1.9 |
| Used browser | 51.2% | 52.7% | 1.5 |
| Accessed social networking site or blog | 37.9% | 39.4% | 1.5 |
| Played Games | 33.8% | 34.1% | 0.3 |
| Listened to music on mobile phone | 28.3% | 28.7% | 0.4 |
Of course, the application convergence also goes the other way: smart phones increasingly are used as a primary content consumption screen.
A study by Orange shows a stark contrast in mobile media habits between teenagers and adults in the U.K. market, for example.
For teenagers, the mobile phone is the primary screen, for the first time, not the TV or PC.
Also, adults are using multiple screens more interchangeably than ever before, choosing the most suitable screen for any particular situation, Orange says.
In the United Kingdom, 83 percent of teenagers have a smart phone and 95 percent have one in Spain. In addition, 92 percent of teenagers in the United Kingdom say mobile is a “way to always have a media device at hand” and 55 per cent of teenagers in the UK say that they prefer their mobile over other screens.
Consumers also are increasingly using their mobile or tablet to replicate the same experience on their PC, about 62 percent of consumers in the United Kingdom agree. Consumers also are multitasking. Some 90 percent of consumers access the internet at the same time as watching TV, in the United Kingdom.
At the same time as interchangeable usage is occurring, larger screens on smart phones are making accessing multimedia easier, and “smaller” sized tablets are increasing their portability. In Spain, 16 percent of tablet owners also own the more portable Samsung Galaxy Tab, for example.
The percentage of people primarily accessing mobile media ‘out and about’ on both their mobile and tablet has significantly increased across all markets.
In the United Kingdom 58 percent of respondents say they use their devices to access content and media while out and about.
Tablet use to access content and media “out and about” has grown from 11 percent of users in 2011 to 21 percent in 2012 in the United Kingdom.
And though some would say tablets are not a substitute for a PC, about 75 percent of tablet media users want to “find the same things on their tablet as on their PC,” the study also found. That doesn’t mean people believe they can “work” on a tablet in the same way as on a PC.
But where it comes to content and information, they do expect they will be able to consume all the same content they would expect to get on a PC.
One of Google’s studies of tablet use over a two-week period, which had users recording every occasion that they used their tablet, shows that tablets really are not PCs, any more than smart phones are used in the same way that PCs are used.
Most consumers use their tablets for fun, entertainment and relaxation while they use their desktop computer or laptop for work, Google User Experience Researchers Jenny Gove and John Webb say. About 91 percent of the time that people spend on their tablet devices is for personal rather than work related activities.
And, as it turns out, when a consumer gets a tablet, they quickly migrate many of their entertainment activities from laptops and smart phones to this new device.
The most frequent tablet activities are checking email, playing games and social networking. The study also found that people are doing more activities in shorter bursts on weekdays (social networking, email) while engaging in longer usage sessions on weekends (watching videos/TV/movies).
Tablets are multi-tasking devices with at least 42 percent of activities occurring while doing another task or engaging with another entertainment medium. Tablets aren’t PCs
As it turns out, lots of things people can do on PCs don’t “need” to be done on PCs. Content consumption, email and other communications actually represent most of what many business users really “have to do” on a PC.
Also, tablets are more accurately described as “untethered” devices than “mobile” devices, to the extent that tablets primarily are used at home. Unlike smart phones that go everywhere and laptops that travel between work and home, few consumers take their tablets with them when they leave the house.
That shipments of tablets are expected to grow from 72.7 million units in 2011 to 383.3 million units by 2017, according to NPD, would not surprise many observers.
Growth in emerging markets, expected to account for up to 46 percent of worldwide shipments by 2017, an increase from the 36 percent share in 2011, might be more surprising.
The tablet forecast also illustrates an important change in connected appliance trends. In the past, “PCs” have been one category of appliances, while MP-3 players, phones and digital organizers, game devices, cameras and e-reading devices have been distinctly different categories.
These days, many of those devices have overlapping functions. Taken as a whole, the changes suggest the crucial role “content consumption” now plays as a lead application for most devices. Though PCs, cameras and organizers still largely have “work or business” use cases, virtually all the other devices are oriented around content consumption.
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