New Research from Movable Ink Shows Surging Tablet Use by US Consumers

[](https://s3.amazonaws.com/movableink-blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/12193357/Screen-Shot-2014-05-12-at-3.31.29-PM.png)More and more Americans are turning to tablets when it comes to interacting with consumer brands, according to a new research report from Movable Ink. The data reveals that 18.5% of marketing emails were opened on a tablet in the first quarter, up from 16.5% from the previous quarter, and from 13.8% when Movable Ink first started reporting on device usage statistics in Q2 2013.The Movable Ink “US Consumer Device Preference Report: Q1 2014)” also shows that there are only 13 states remaining where desktop email opens exceed smartphone opens. By comparison, the country was evenly split just nine months ago, when Movable Ink issued its Q2 2013 report, underscoring how rapidly the mobile takeover is occurring.“Mobile adoption continues to grow, and tablets are playing a bigger role in the mix,” said Vivek Sharma, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Movable Ink. “Marketers should be laser focused on what we call “next tap optimization,” which is all about making it easy for consumers to engage with brands and shop when using their smartphones and tablets.”The quarterly report provides deep insight into the popularity of various devices, examines differences in consumer engagement based on the devices they use, and shows how device preferences vary across the nation. Unlike other studies, this data set exclusively includes results from large, enterprise B2C marketers.Key findings include:* **Two-thirds of all email opens took place on mobile devices.** 66 percent of emails were opened on either a smartphone or tablet device, up from 65% in Q4 2013 and 62% when Movable Ink issued its first report in Q2 2013. Desktop accounted for a new low of 34% of email opens, a decline from 35% in the previous quarter.* **Tablets stole time-share from desktops – and from smartphones.** This quarter’s study marks the first time that tablet didn’t just chip away at desktop time-share, but at smartphones as well (smartphones accounted for 47.2% of opens in Q1 2014, versus 48.2% in Q4 2013).* **Apple asserted its dominance over Android**. iPhones and iPads accounted for 54.5% of all opens in Q1, compared to 49.9% in Q4. Meanwhile, Android devices combined for 10.8% of opens, down from 14.4% in Q4.* **Android and Apple traded places when it came to time spent viewing emails.** Slightly more than 40% of Android smartphone users viewed emails for 15 seconds or longer, compared to 35% of iPhone users. In Q4, 38% of iPhone users lingered the longest on messages, compared to 35% of Android smartphone users.* **Smartphone usage peaks in the early morning, tablets in the evening.** New data revealed how device usage varies by time of day.###**About the Movable Ink “US Consumer Device Preference Report: Q1 2014”**Charts are based on data collected through Movable Ink’s agileEMAIL platform between January 1 – March 31, 2014. They reflect aggregate statistics across Movable Ink’s customer base, which includes more than 150 enterprise B2C marketers from the retail, travel, financial, media, and telecommunication industries. Because determining email opens requires images to load, the percentages for some devices might be over or underrepresented.