Also a price slash hit RIM's PlayBook and the Barnes & Noble Nook Color threw its hat in the ring.
Research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project shows that from mid-December 2011 until early January 2012, the percent of Americans who owned either a tablet and e-Reader almost doubled, from 10 percent share to 19 percent.
Strike while the iron's hot
The study also found that as of January 2012, 29 percent of Americans owned at least one tablet or e-Reader.
"These findings are striking because they come after a period from mid-2011 into the autumn in which there was not much change in the ownership of tablets and e-book readers," reads the report.
"However, as the holiday gift-giving season approached the marketplace for both devices dramatically shifted."
Young, rich and educated
A set of three surveys carried out over November 2010, mid-December 2011 and early January 2012 isolated the key cultural areas in which the number of tablet owners grew.
Most notable areas of tablet userbase growth included those consumers with higher education and a household income of over $75,000, with over a third of the latter (36 percent) owning a tablet.
31 percent of college graduates came to own a tablet by January 2012, up from 8 percent in November 2010 and 17 percent in December 2011.
There was also a notable increase in tablet owners among the under 50. Of those, Americans aged between 18 and 29, 24 percent own a tablet, while 27 percent of those aged between 30 and 49 now own one.
Comparatively 15 percent of those aged between 50 and 64 own a tablet, while only 7 percent of those aged over 65 own one.
[source: Pew Internet and American Life Project]
