In US, they use tablet PCs mostly for gaming: survey

Nearly 84 per cent of tablet PC owners in the US use them for gaming while 51 per cent use them for music and videos, according to a survey by Google.

In the US, an estimated 50 per cent or more tablet PCs in use are purchased by consumers and used for business.

The survey of 1,400 tablet PC users in the US, conducted by Google's AdMob subsidiary, has found that most of the tablet owners find gaming as the most popular use for these devices, trumping other entertainments like music, video and reading.

According to the survey, 84 per cent of tablet owners use them for playing games while 78 per cent use them for searching for information, 74 per cent for emailing, 61 per cent for accessing news, 56per cent for social networking, 51 per cent for music and videos and 46 per cent for accessing ebooks.

About 38 per cent of those surveyed said they spend more than two hours a day using their tablets, while another 30 per cent said they spend 1-2 hours.

The survey also seems to have demolished the myth that the tablets are used by people on the move rather than in offices and homes. About 82 per cent of tablet users use them at home, while 11 per cent carry them and 7 per cent use them at work, the survey found.

Around 43 per cent of those surveyed said they spend more time on their tablet than on the desktop or laptop computer while 28 per cent of respondents said they use the tablet as their primary computer.

The survey, conducted in March, however, does not detail the amount of time used for playing games vis-à-vis other uses of the tablets.