• by Aaron Baar , September 13, 2012

Offering a particularly satisfying user experience, tablets are quickly moving up the list as a top content consumption device among consumers.

According to the inaugural Tablet Satisfaction Study from J.D. Power and Associates, tablet owners spend 7.5 hours a week browsing the Internet, watching videos, listening to music and reading books on their devices, compared with the 9.6 hours a week they spend doing the same activities on their personal computers. 

“The form factors, features and portability are really important and [are] what’s driving tablet usage a lot,” Uma S. Jha, senior director of mobile devices at J.D. Power, tells Marketing Daily. “You have a computer you can take with you anytime and anyplace.”

The more people use tablets for these purposes, the more satisfied they are as well. According to the study, overall satisfaction recorded an index score of 857 (on a 1,000-point scale) among owners who view three or more hours of video a week on their tablets. That number is 45 points higher than among consumers who watch less video on their devices. What’s more, consumers who spend three or more hours viewing video content on their devices are more likely to buy another tablet from the same manufacturer than those who don’t watch as much (90% vs. 81%, respectively). 

Among the tablet makers, Apple had the highest overall satisfaction, with an index score of 848, scoring well in areas such as performance, ease of use, styling and design and features. Amazon’s Kindle Fire, however, placed a close second, with a score of 842 -- gaining a particular boost from its lower price, according to the study. The overall industry average (regardless of usage rates) was 832, with Samsung, Acer, Barnes & Noble and HP all falling below that mark.

Still, the tablet market is far from a two-horse race, Jha says. As more tablets come on the market and overall prices begin to drop (and tablets account for even more screen time), it’s likely that satisfaction rates for other makers will also increase. 

“You will see [tablets] evolve, and I won’t be surprised to see that it will be the primary screen,” he says. “There are other models that are coming that will make this tablet race very competitive.”