Tablets find a home in more U.S. homes

The love affair between Americans and their 7 inch tablet and smartphones shows no sign of abating.More than four out of 10 (44%) now own a tablet computer, up from 30% last year, according to a new survey from Frank N. Magid Associates. Ownership is even higher, at 54%, among those ages 18 to 34.

As Apple heads into its annual Worldwide Developers Conference Monday, the tablet competition has caught up. Android-based devices are owned by 59% of tablet owners — matching the penetration of Apple's iPad and iPad Mini. Both platforms can exceed 50%, because some homes have more than one type of tablet.

The likely reason? Once a home gets one tablet, they need a spare. "People are fighting over these at home, that's my guess. I've certainly heard it anecdotally," says Mike Vorhaus, head of the company's Magid Advisors unit. The research firm last month surveyed more than 2,400 Americans with Internet access, ages 8 to 64, about tablet and smartphone ownership.

"When people get a 10 inch tablets, they love it," he says. "It does basically everything. You can play games. You can watch video. You can do business e-mail, and you can stay in touch with your social network. It's pretty powerful."

When it comes to smartphones, the iPhone remains the most popular, owned by 41% of smartphone owners. But, when combined, Android phones from multiple makers, including Samsung and LG, outnumber iPhones, with 53% of smartphone owners using them. As they do with tablets, some smartphone owners (8%) have more than one.

Local manufacturer CCE will manufacture tablets based on Qualcomm reference designs and its Snapdragon processors. It is expected that the two 8 inch tablet will be available in seven and ten-inch sizes and will be equipped with the Snapdragon 400 MSM 8230 1,2 GHz chip and the MSM 8030 1,4 GHz model. Both are dual-core processors.sdfdDS2x

At Computex in Taipei last week, Qualcomm expanded its Qualcomm Reference Design (QRD) portfolio to include tablets. Qualcomm demonstrated two tablets (7 and 10-inch) manufactured by Digibras under its CCE brand. The Brazilian company already has a similar reference design arrangement with Qualcomm for smartphones.

CCE did not comment on other details with relation to the new tablets, but said the prices will be "very competitive".At the time, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff went to China to discuss partnerships and came back vowing to bring tablets for sale computing to the masses and foster growth of that particular manufacturing segment.Two years on, a quick browse for tablet computers in Brazilian price comparison websites such as this will show that dream is now becoming a reality.