text: Tablet Owners Are Hungry for Paid Content [STUDY]
  By Joann Pan 2012-03-16 15:23:34 UTC
  Are you buying lots of cool new apps for your iPad? If so, you have proved a study about tablet owners right.
  A Nielsen study shows individuals are loading up their Apple iPads, Amazon Kindle Fires, Android devices and other tablets with paid content.
  These consumers devour professional, long-form content such as books, magazine features and movies.
  Tablet owners are currently redefining the standard of media consumption — to charge or not to charge.
  Selling subscription-based content to mobile users was once unthinkable, Jonathan Carson — head of Nielsen's Digital Business — told Mashable. TV overwhelmingly relies on ads and subscriptions, but the Internet has not because most content is free.
  Charging credit cards for tablet media content is a global trend, the study says. People are downloading costly music, books, movies, magazines, TV shows, streaming radio, news and sports content, usually in that order. The only discrepancy is the purchase of news in different countries.
  Voluntary participants for the study were tablet users in U.S., U.K., Italy and Germany. Americans are the most likely out of the countries studied to buy entertainment. Though Italians are more likely to buy news content than anyone.
  Why? It's a mix of the availability of free news in the U.S. and the kinds of media available in these countries, Carson said. U.S. news companies were traditionally really hesitant to experiment with online and mobile subscriptions.
  That is certainly shifting.
  "This has really important lessons for content strategies and for business models for media companies," Carson said. "For media companies it's figuring out the balance between what's our subscription versus single-content transaction versus advertising supported model. It's just a very critical nuanced balance for them to make right now."
  SEE ALSO: iPad Is Still the King of Tablets, But Kindle Fire and Others Are Catching Up [STUDY]
  Carson suggests that media organizations start experimenting now as new devices roll out in the near future.
  "There is very strong usage for Americans for news content on tablets," Carson said. "They enjoy consuming news content on their tablets, just that Americans news companies have not monetized it through paid subscriptions and paid transactions."
  The trend of paid content is viewed as a turn of events at Nielsen. Nielsen is currently focused on looking at the world as people adapt to various smart devices. Things change every couple of months, Carson said.
  The study also released other interesting statistics about tablet owners.
  Whereas women trump men in TV viewing, online video viewing, blogging and smartphone usage, men make up the majority in tablet usage. Most tablet users are 18 to 34 years old. Tablets are mostly used at home, Nielsen reports. Only 30% use the bulky device on-the-go.
  Which tablet apps are you willing to pay for? Tell us in the comments.
  Image courtesy of Flickr, Johan Larsson.
  Topics: android tablets, Apple, Apps and Software, iPad, Marketing, Mobile, study, tablets, Tech, World