Pew Internet and American Life Project surveyed US consumers and found that, broken down into those three groups, more Hispanics were early adopters of tablets. In November 2010, 7 percent of Hispanics owned tablets, compared with 4 percent of blacks or whites. Just six months later, the percentage of usage among all three ethnic groups had about doubled, but the disparity remained.
For ereaders, the trajectory has been a bit different. In November, Pew reported fairly even ereader adoption across racial and ethnic lines. But Hispanics tripled ereader penetration between November and May, to 15 percent, while whites and blacks increased ownership at a slower pace.
Another survey, by the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University, found that US minorities—including blacks, Asians, Spanish-speaking Hispanics and English-speaking Hispanics—have higher levels of tablet and ereader ownership than non-Hispanic whites.
Among minorities, more Hispanics than blacks or Asians own or plan to own ereaders or tablets in the next year. The only exception was among Asians, who either own or plan to own a tablet in greater numbers than English-speaking Hispanics.
The trend of Hispanic early adopters may be attributed to the tremendous buying power of US Hispanics, which is projected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2015—a cumulative increase of around 25 percent, according to Packaged Facts.
