Tablets now used by one in three UK consumers

More than one in three consumers in the UK will use a tablet this year, according to research from eMarketer.

eMarketer predicts that in 2013, 20 million people will use a tablet, including individuals who own their own tablet and use it monthly, as well as people who share a tablet with others and also use the device on a monthly basis.

By 2017, the digital marketing company estimates that more than half of the UK population will use a tablet device regularly.

eMarketer suggests that one reason the tablet audience is growing is the increasing availability of low-end tablet alternatives. Last month, Tesco announced the launch of its own brand tablet, Hudl, which retails at £119 – half the price of Google’s Nexus.

Another reason is that as audiences become more accustomed to going online via mobile devices, they are more likely to become ‘comfortable’ with tablets, which eMarketer suggests might push tablets past the group of early adopters.

While the bulk of tablet owners are still in the 25-54 age range, the fastest growth in the tablet audience for this year is expected to happen among those under 12 and over 65 – with the distribution of tablet users by age normalising significantly by the end of the year.