How Many of Your Customers Own Tablets?

Often when writing about publishing and mobile opportunities, bloggers like myself will refer to stats regarding how much of a particular population has smartphones or tablets in order to make a case for developing mobile versions of one's website or services. But it's much more important to focus on the population of potential customers, since not everyone is going to be interested in your publication or service, and even more important to focus on your current customers, given the frequently high cost of customer acquisition.

Recently trade publication Packaging World conducted a survey and found that 46% of their subscribers owned a tablet, such as the iPad or an Android tablet, and 78% said they planned to own one by next spring.

Of the 46% who are current owners, "74% said they read work-related digital magazines on the devices. At the same time, 55% said they accessed work- or industry-related websites with their tablets."

I'm not familiar with the mobile solutions employed by Packaging World but, given that many customers with tablets, I'd certainly want my website to have a nice tablet version to keep those customers engaged and to let them know my company was keeping their needs as subscribers in mind.

Beyond the issue of specific mobile devices, this news brief is a strong reminder of the need to survey one's customers on a periodic basis.

Sometimes they'll surprise you!