Ipad on Top

Are you one of the two out of 10 U.S. tablet owners who doesn't have iPad?

Yes, you're a minority. But do you feel like an individualist -- that grand defiant person who refuses to be one of the sheep? Or are you embarrassed to take your tablet out for fear the pad people will scoff at you? If it's any consolation, your numbers are growing ever so slightly -- from 9 out of 10 (based on Apple assertions) just two months ago. If there's safety in numbers, you've got a long way to go yet.

Eighty-two percent of U.S. tablet owners are pad people -- er, iPad owners, Nielsen revealed on May 5. But that's not you. You're more likely to be an "other" tablet owner than any, well, other. That category accounts for 9 percent of U.S. owners -- right, nearly one in 10. The next lot of you own Samsung Galaxy Tab (4 percent). Another 3 percent own the Dell Streak and 2 percent the Motorola XOOM. Well, so much for Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" pulling away people from iPad, eh.

Among the pad people, 43 percent suckered up for the big spending, plunking down anywhere from $629 to $829 for iPad with WiFi and 3G. Thirty-nine percent own Wi-Fi only iPads. They only paid between $499 and $699. But iPad buyers aren't obligated to take a costly data plan or lock into a two-year contract as you most likely did. Are you now feeling sorry about those monthly data-plan fees for the tablet you daren't take out in public?

Nielsen wrote about you -- well, supposedly, in a blog post today that summarized new research. I say "supposedly" because those eight out of 10 pad people. We can only assume that the findings reflect your behavior. Nielsen says that "iPad continues to dominate the conversation -- and market." Perhaps iPad overly dominates the research, too.

Nielsen claims that about one third of tablet owners use their desktop PC less and 3 percent "do not use it anymore." It's 30 percent and 2 percent, respectively, for laptops.

"Twenty-seven percent of those who also own e-readers said they use their e-reader less often or not at all," according to Nielsen. You were such a rugged individualist when buying Kindle years ago. Now look at you. Uh-oh, "25 percent [of] tablet owners who own portable games consoles are using those devices less often, if at all, since purchasing a tablet." So much for that Nintendo 3DS, eh?

But is any of this about you, or just the pad people? We want to know. Be proud of being different, or pretend to be so you can tell us in comments.