Can Apple -- long rumored to be working on a television set of its own -- get the attention of television users? It looks like the Cupertino, Calif. iPad maker already has.
Most people who own tablets or smartphones use them while watching television, according to a survey conducted late last year in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy by the media researchers at Nielsen.
The survey hints at ways television, smartphone, and tablet use can complement one another, rather than compete. That suggests some interesting possibilities for Apple, which dominates the tablet market with its iPad, and Microsoft, which has already found ways to tie its XBox 360 gaming console to its Windows Phone software.
The most common reason for combining big and little screens: to check email, although Nielson found “device owners also seem to engage with content related to the TV as well, either by looking up information related to the show or looking for deals and general information on products advertised on TV.”
Americans, it turns, out, lead the way on this trend. Eighty-eight percent of tablet owners and 86 percent of smartphone owners used their gadgets at least once over a 30-day period while watching TV, according to the survey.
Forty-five percent of Americans with tablets watch television while using thier tablets daily, and 26% use both devices several times a day. Forty-one percent of Americans with smartphones also used their phone and their television at the same time.
Germans and Italians, for some reason, were more likely to use small and big screens together. 29% of tablet users in both countries said they ‘never’ mix tablets and televisions. Only 14% of U.S. tablet users said the same.
Nearly identical slices of those surveyed -- 34 percent of Italians and 35 percent of Germans -- don’t watch television while thumbing their smartphones. Again, only 14% of U.S. smartphone users never used their television and smartphone at the same time.
