Study Shows Britons Less Interested in Tablets

iPad 2 might have drawn massive crowds in London last Friday, but don’t be fooled: Apparently, folks in the United Kingdom are the least interested in tablets.

According to a study carried out by TNS in more than 40 countries, Britons are a full 11 percent behind the European average in terms of tablet lust.The survey, which interviewed 34,000 people in 43 countries found that while the average European country can say 28 percent of its residents plan on buying a tablet in the next six months, only 17 percent of Britons plan on doing so. While the average tablet demand in a European country was 28 percent, the average in Asia is even higher at 31 percent.

The news comes after the much ballyhooed launch of the iPad 2, which saw punters queue up outside Apple stores for hours. The iPad went on sale on Friday, March 25, and some determined fans were waiting outside Apple locations as early as Thursday morning.

With more tablets, such as the Motorola Xoom and Samsungs newly refreshed Galaxy Tab line, it’s likely demand for tablets in the United Kingdom will pick up as more devices become available.

TNS' survey also found that while we’re falling behind in our desire for tablets, we’re coming out on top in social networking on the go. TNS reports that 16 percent, or 5.5 million Britons, access social networks from their phone on a daily basis. That figure is set to rise as 41 percent of UK mobile users who aren’t accessing sites like Facebook from their phones claim to be ‘interested’ in doing just that.

Where do you stand? Will you be buying a tablet before September/October? Let us know in the comments below!

Further Reading:
Telegraph UK
Phones Review

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3

anonymous@guest , March 29, 2011 11:45 PM

Perhaps we think the King is wearing no clothes? or possibly just slightly shiny versions of the ones everybody already wears, except with no pockets for his keys.
1

codefuapprentice , March 30, 2011 12:42 AM

I dunno about every other brit but i'd love to get an Apple iPad, and some of the other tablet systems, as they can be handier than having a netbook at times.
2

dillyflump , March 30, 2011 1:11 AM

I'm English and have no plans to buy a tablet at all. Why pay for a limited overpriced piece of kit that performs about a tenth as well as my main PC. The only reason people keep buying them and hyping up new tablet releases are most people these days are nothing more than consumer lemmings, like magpies they'll buy any old crap as long as it's shiny looking.
2

ben BOys , March 30, 2011 2:36 AM

so happy to know this. once again showing britian is generally the cleverest in terms of technology. why get a tablet when you can get a dell flipbook
1

shanky887614 , March 30, 2011 2:45 AM

im not an applefan boy, dont judge

tablets are too big to carry arround with you, dont have the functionality of laptops and cost the same in most cases
1

flaminggerbil , March 30, 2011 2:53 AM

Being British I couldnt give any less of a shit about tablets, I have an Android based smartphone and a reasonably high spec PC with Windows 7.
Y'know what? That's all I need.
1

shanky887614 , March 30, 2011 3:01 AM

a tablet is useless for work, you need a proper mouse and keyboard to avoid rsi

its good at viewing the web but seeing as everyone that is even thinking out this has a phone in there pocket that has internet access, its not worth considering

if we want to play games on the move we will buy a 3ds or psp/psp2 when they come out

and thats if we dont play games on our phones
1

chronicbint , March 30, 2011 3:05 AM

Already have one, great bits of kit, very useful.
0

LePhuronn , March 30, 2011 8:04 AM

The second we get a tablet that isn't a toy and can actually be used for something I'm getting one. I've already proved they have potential at work for location shoots, client demos and some non-computer conceptual stuff, but every tablet has been too restrictive in how you share and use media.

I think a Windows tablet will solve a lot of my issues, but we'll have to see if anything viable comes out.

Or I might just write my own apps, unless there are some decent script, production and storyboard apps already available.
0

Griffolion , March 30, 2011 3:04 PM

I think those figures may change when the Windows 8 tablets come out and companies start integrating those into their companies etc. But yeah, i've a feeling the current figures are because Britain has the highest relative prices for these things due to a million and one different import taxes on these things.
0

anonymous@guest , March 30, 2011 3:58 PM

The technology is impressive, but I won't be buying a tablet any time soon. There isn't really any part of my life that would be enhanced in any meaningful way through owning a tablet. If they continue to drop in price, I might pick one up eventually, but it would still be just a toy to play with rather than a device I am buying for a particular purpose.
0

doive1231 , March 30, 2011 3:59 PM

Us Brits are snobbish about things like this. Tablet envy.
0

anonymous@guest , March 30, 2011 10:53 PM

Maybe it's something to do with the fact that an ipad 2 costs about £100 more in the UK than the US... So I guess the punters are finally fighting back LOL