Tablets 'one of the fastest-growing technologies in history'

 Tablets are 'one of the most rapidly-adopted technologies in history' according to new research from the US.

 

One in four smartphone owners used a tablet between February and April this year, an increase of 14 per cent over last year.

"Once consumers get their hands on their first tablet, they are using them for any number of media habits," said Mark Donovan, Senior Vice President of Mobile at market research firm comScore.

The research showed that video is especially popular on tablets, with 10 per cent of owners watching video every day on their device, compared with just three per cent of smartphone owners.

More than one in four tablet owner paid to access video, which will be welcome news for entertainment firms in a year where one of the most popular television series, HBO's Game of Thrones, was pirated more than 4 million times per week via the BitTorrent filesharing protocol, according to the TorrentFreak blog.

Apple's iPad accounted for most of the growth in the tablet market. The latest iPad sold three million in its first weekend on shelves, in March this year. The blockbuster launch compared to 14 million total sales in 2010, when the first version was introduced.