Tablets are displacing PCs and smartphones as the consumer’s favourite “couch computer” according to Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps.

In a new report that analyses the relationship between the tablet and the TV, Rotman Epps explains that 85% of US tablet owners use their tablets while watching TV, backed by figures from Nielsen which showed 30% of total tablet time is spent while watching TV. 

Despite the continued promotion of ‘Smart TVs’, tablets are turning TV into a “dumb device”. The analyst explains that consumers with tablets think their tablets are even smarter and at least some of the time prefer to watch the content from their small device on the big screen, she says.

Rotman Epps’ research also showed that tablets displace small TVs with 32% of tablet owners claiming they won’t buy a small (less than 24") TV in the future compared with only 7% who say the same about large TVs. However, the growth of tablets is introducing “new place” scenarios for TV with those surveyed admitting to watching more online video overall since getting a tablet, says Rotman Epps’.

Additionally, consumers are using tablets as personal TVs where they had none before such as in the kitchen, bathroom and airports, according to the research.

“Product strategists in the content and cable industries have begun to exploit the tablet-TV relationship with new products like TV – everywhere apps, social TV apps, and ‘transmedia storytelling’ apps like the graphic novel that USA Networks produced with DC Comics to complement its TV show Burn Notice. 

“But the TV-tablet relationship matters to product strategists in other industries as well. If your product is something else besides media — a software application, a bank account, or apparel, for example — assume that the living room is the primary place where consumers will engage with you from their tablet, and that the TV will most likely be on,” she concludes.