A new study conducted by Pew Research showed that half of all adults in the United States now own either a smartphone or tablet computer, the Associated Press reports. The research firm believes its findings have “major implications for how news will be consumed and paid for” in the future, with nearly 20% of mobile news respondents revealing that they paid for an online subscription within the last year. About half of the tablet news readers said they now spend more time consuming news, while nearly a third of readers claimed that they are also receiving news from sources they didn’t use before.
Pew also found that tablets based on the Android operating system are gaining momentum as slightly more than a half of those surveyed owned an iPad, compared to 81% a year ago, while 48% reported owning Android tablets such as the Kindle Fire. The latest numbers come from a survey of more than 9,000 adults conducted from late June to early August.
