About 50 per cent of device screen time is spent on entertainment, such as playing games, reading books, watching live TV or listening to music and radio, according to an end-user survey by Gartner Inc.

The rest is spent on communication (26 per cent), such as sending emails and visiting social media sites; production activities (15 per cent), such as editing videos and writing blogs; and finding information (9 per cent), including checking the news and weather and researching products and services.

“Of the different types of activity, people spend by far the most time on entertainment, and people often use several devices at once, so it seems we are turning into a society of multitasking, multiscreen users,” said Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner.

“Tablet users, for example, continue to use tablets most in the evening, between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. This suggests the use of tablets as companions to television viewing and other living-room activities. Smartphones are used more for ad hoc research or quick sessions on social media websites while on the move or engaged in another screen activity,” Escherich added.

The survey, conducted in July 2013, was of 726 tablet owners in the U.S., U.K. and Australia. It found that, on average, the respondents spend four hours a day of their personal time in front of devices with screens, including tablets, smartphones and PCs, but excluding TV sets, game consoles, e-readers and MP3 players.

rajesh.kurup@thehindu.co.in

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