A new Pew study has emphasized the rift in technology adoption for the US. About 19 percent of Americans have a tablet of some sort, researches said, and as many have an e-reader. A full 22 percent of Americans, however, had no Internet access at all, a figure that has remained largely constant since 2009.
Several factors played into the discrepancy, Pew said. Poverty or low income was important, but at 10 percent of those offline was only one piece of the answer. The most common response, 31 percent, was that these users simply weren’t interested. In many cases, these were seniors who hadn’t grown up with Internet access or in families that had never used Internet access before. Many felt they either wouldn’t see a benefit or didn’t think they could learn how to use it.
High-speed Internet access had now largely taken over for those who were online, with 62 percent of all American adults using cable, DSL, or similar to get online. The three percent that hadn’t signed on mostly either wanted the price to drop or were in rural areas where incumbents often refuse to expand service.
Pew’s data did show that cellphone ownership in the US was increasingly being concentrated in the hands of Apple and Google. The iPhone had caught up to the BlackBerry at about 10 percent of respondents, although Android was now up to 15 percent. Just two percent said they used a Windows Phone, or as much as HP’s defunct webOS and PalmOS put together.
