by Pete Prestipino, from ‘Net Features: http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/12/18/tablets-aren-t-all-that.aspx

If you believe that tablets are going to change how content is consumed in the long term, you’re probably right. But when it comes to the short or near term, you better think again about the degree to which you might want to shift your strategy.

New research from StatCounter indicates that global tablet Internet usage was just 4.8 percent in November compared to 19.1 percent for mobile. But tablets and smartphones don’t hold a digital candle to the desktop which still dominates with 76.1 percent ‘Net usage.

The new data is revealed as StatCounter has launches new tablet internet usage stats. “The perception is that tablets are proliferating and replacing traditional PC and laptop machines so we developed our research platform to isolate tablet usage stats,” added Aodhan Cullen of StatCounter. “In reality we found that tablet internet usage globally at less than 5% is still relatively small compared to desktop and mobile.”

In the US tablet internet usage share stands at 6.8% or about half the mobile number (15.2%) with desktop on 77.9%. In the UK tablet is stronger than in the US on 9.6% behind mobile (14.8%) and desktop (75.4%).