Marketing (il)logic

Sometimes, one wonders if marketing people have any grasp of elementary logic. Consider this quote from a report headlined “Many Windows 8 Tablets Will Sport a Keyboard.”

Samsung showed off the latest version of its Slate tablet, a grayish device with a bright touch screen measuring 11.6 inches at the diagonal. It comes with a pressure-sensing stylus called the S-Pen, and will sell with an optional detachable keyboard that uses magnets and latching hardware to stay in place. Unlike most of the devices shown at the event, the Slate had a price and release date: it will be available October 26, the same day Windows 8 launches, for $749 with the keyboard and $649 without.

Allison Kohn, public relations manager for Samsung Electronics America, said the company decided to pair the tablet with a keyboard to help users carry around fewer gadgets. “It simplifies your lifestyle, being able to consolidate your devices,” she said.

So: Samsung provides 1 tablet + 1 keyboard in order to “consolidate” the lives of people who currently carry 1 iPad?

A quarter of US adults now have a tablet computer

Wow! How things change. From the PEW Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ).

Over the last year, tablet ownership has steadily increased from 11% of U.S. adults in July of 2011 to 18% in January of 2012, according to PEJ data. Currently, 22% own a tablet and another 3% regularly use a tablet owned by someone else in the home. This number is very close to new data, released here for the first time, conducted in a separate survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project on July 16 through August 7 2012 that found 25% of all U.S. adults have a tablet computer.

And over half of those tablets are iPads.