One in five Americans own tablet computer

The New York Times’ Julie Bosman (@juliebosman) reported yesterday that almost one in five Americans own a tablet computer.

In just two months over the Christmas holiday, the share of adults who owned tablet computers almost doubled from 10 percent to 19 percent, per a report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project.

Noted by Bosman:

The increased ownership of tablets was especially pronounced among highly educated people with household incomes of more than $75,000. Almost one-third of people with college degrees now own tablet computers, the report said.

Women were heavier buyers of e-readers than men, a finding consistent with surveys that indicate women tend to buy more books than men do.

Per Lee Rainie, director of the Internet and American Life Project, the ecosystem of these devices is making them more valuable.

Publishers are putting a lot of effort into e-books; apps developers are cranking out more and more tools for tablets; libraries and tech companies are making e-books easier to borrow.

What does this mean for you as an attorney or law firm?

As an attorney, if you’re not using a tablet computer, you’ll soon fall into the minority of highly educated people who do not.

Your content should be timely, insightful, brief, and to the point. People consume bite size pieces of content on apps on tablets.

Your content should be RSS enabled via a blog. This is how content is being delivered to tablets.

Get with other social media than blogging. Americans are spending a significant amount of time, if not most of their time, on tablets using social networks and social media.

Don’t develop your own app. Look for networks to partner with that curate relevant content to your target audience.

We’re soon going to see the day where reading content from the net on a computer monitor is the exception, not the rule. Tablets will be how we consume and process information.