US, European iPad ownership rockets
World+Dog wants Apple tablet
iPad ownership is rocketing in Europe's five leading economies, with more than 11.4 million people now in possession of an Apple fondleslab, market watcher ComScore said today.
That total, for January 2012, is almost double - the rate is 75 per cent - the 6.5m iPads in punters' hands in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK in February 2011.
iPad ownership has grown particularly strongly in Blighty, with the total number of Apple tablets in the hands of Brits jumping 115 per cent between February 2011 and January 2012, the research company's numbers show.

But France isn't far behind with a growth rate of 95 per cent. Italy clocked up 75 per cent ownership growth, Germany 50 per cent and Spain 37 per cent.
Only Spain and Italy have seen the ownership graph begin to plateau of late, and that's perhaps no surprise given the state of their economies.

ComScore tracks what it calls the "mobile audience" - mobile phone owners, in other words. Looking at the equivalent group in the States, iPad ownership went from just under 8m in February 2011 to 16m by January 2012. ®
COMMENTS
Re: But Why?
There, there. Calm down.
I don't hear that "everyone else copies from Apple". Do you? Really? Or is it you hearing something that isn't being said?
I don't hear people saying "Apple invented ... Tablets... touch interfaces...". Ask yourself, seriously, whether you might be hearing things that aren't being said. Or even written. What you write reads like a canned, knee-jerk response--dogma, frankly--not rooted in reality.
And, of course, you can only improve on things that already exist.
Cheers!
Re: But Why?
Strangely I have heard my work colleagues say that, I'm attributing it to the fact that they aren't very technically literate or minded.
YMMV.
You can ask most people who desperately desire entry to the hip fruity fanclub, why they want an iPaad. Most of them can think of no actually reason.... the rest couldn't think at all.
Not to mention how much of an ar5e the owners look taking a photo with it. Say cheese for the tray!
Comparison
IIRC 100 % year on year is below Apple's figures, i.e. Apple's growth is not in Europe. More figures needed: are the figures disappointing because Europeans aren't buying pads in the numbers they are elsewhere? or impressive because Apple still has the market to itself? ComScore has more detailed figures on this, surprised not to seem them in this report.
