• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, March 1, 2012

The European financial crisis doesn’t seem to hitting tablet owners too hard. According to new research from Nielsen, tablet and smartphone owners in Germany, Italy and the U.K. are more likely than American device owners to make a purchase online via PC after viewing an ad on their tablet or smartphone. For example, 32% of German and Italian tablet users made a purchase through the desktop Web after seeing a tablet ad compared to only 23% of Americans.

Likewise, 34% of German and 28% of U.K.-based smartphone owners made a similar purchase after seeing an ad on their device compared to 20% of Americans. U.S. tablet and smartphone users were generally also less likely to buy something through their device, in a store after seeing an ad and less likely to click through for more information.

The only thing American tablet owners do at a slightly higher rate is request a coupon after seeing an ad, at 13%. They’re also roughly on par with European counterparts in clicking an ad to view the full ad or product offering, at 24%.