Tablet owners choose Wi-Fi over cellular

Media tablets continue their meteoric rise, but according to The NPD Group cellular companies are being left in the dust. An October study by the market research company revealed that 65 percent of tablet owners connected their device to the Internet through Wi-Fi - a five percent increase from research conducted this spring. Not a great showing for cellular, and one unlikely to improve, said the firm.

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"Concern over the high cost of cellular data plans is certainly an issue, but more consumers are finding that Wi-Fi is available in the majority of locations where they use their tablets, providing them 'good enough' connectivity," said Eddie Hold, vice president of NPD's Connected Intelligence division. "In addition, the vast majority of tablet users already own a smartphone, which fulfills the 'must have' connectivity need."

Around 20 percent of respondents said they rely on both mobile and cellular connections. Only a scant 7 percent or so strictly use a cellular plan to head online with their tablets.

Hold clarified that while Wi-Fi remained the far-and-away more popular option, the fact the Kindle Fire doesn't even offer cellular connectivity certainly helped skew the results in Wi-Fi's favor.

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Amazon's new $199 tablet immediately grabbed the No. 2 position in the weeks after its November launch, with shipments expected to approach the four million mark by year's end. Some believe its early success could potentially pave the way for a horse race with Apple's more feature-rich (and expensive) iPad.

Disregarding the Kindle Fire, Hold said cellular companies are setting themselves up for future problems by ignoring the growing userbase and their unwillingness to use always-online data plans.

"There is a relatively low mobile connection rate for tablet users today in light of the fact that these were early adopters, and therefore less price conscious than the mainstream," said Hold. "If there is not an ongoing need for these early adopters to be always-on, then the carriers clearly face challenges with the larger consumer audience moving forward," said Hold. (via The NPD Group)

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How do you connect to the Internet with your tablet? Let us know in the comment section.

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