A Nielsen survey suggests that tablet penetration is low, which means mobile marketers may want to focus their efforts on engaging smartphone users.

A Nielsen survey suggests that tablet penetration is low, which means marketers targeting on-the-go shoppers may want to focus their marketing efforts on engaging smartphone users.

MoCoNews.net relays that Nielsen asked approximately 12,000 U.S. consumers about their mobile devices. For all the hype about tablets, the company found that not many Americans actually own these portable devices.

As of Q1 2011, just 4.8 percent of the respondents have tablets. This puts tablets behind every other mobile internet-enabled device, including netbooks (8 percent adoption), e-readers (9 percent), media players (13 percent) and – especially – smartphones.

More than one-third of Americans (36 percent) currently own smartphones, according to the Nielsen survey. This demonstrates the importance of mobile marketing, especially as Brafton has reported that 74 percent of smartphone owners have made purchases based on smartphone searches.

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.