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 …

A new Pew study released today estimates 46% of U.S. adults own smartphones, up 11 percentage points since last May. Almost every major demographic group—men and women, younger and middle-aged adults, urban and rural residents, the affluent and the less well-off—has seen a measurable uptick in smartphone penetration in the last year. Adoption levels are highest—60% or more—among college graduates, those making $75,000 or more and 18-35-year-olds. Seniors still aren’t jumping on the bandwagon, with only 13% of people 65 and over having a smartphone. Nielsen recently estimated U.S. smartphone penetration at 48%, while comScore earlier this month reported …

Smartphone owners now outnumber owners of more basic phones within the U.S. adult population, and overall ownership has increased by nearly one-third since last spring, according to the latest findings from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. "More importantly, this isn't just a 'young adults and rich people' phenomenon," says Pew Senior Research Specialist Aaron Smith, "We saw pretty dramatic growth across a wide range of demographic groups (from rural residents to high school graduates to people in their late 40s and early 50s)."