There are now more than 500 million devices in US homes that are not only connected to the Internet, but that also deliver apps. The average number of devices per US Internet household has grown from 5.3 devices just three months ago to 5.7 today. The latest findings come from The NPD Group, which surveyed more than 4,000 US consumers age 18 and older in the first quarter of 2013. The firm defines an Internet-connected device as one that delivers applications such as “computers, tablets, smartphones, HDTVs, Blu-ray Disc Players, video game consoles, and streaming media set top boxes.” The firm apparently refers to “apps” as software in general, as opposed to devices with access to an app store. NPD says PC penetration among US Internet connected households this quarter is “nearly ubiquitous at 93 percent” but was “virtually unchanged” over the last quarter. An increase in the second and third categories naturally helped the US market to hit the new milestone: smartphone penetration rose from 52 percent to 57 percent of cell phone users while tablet penetration increased significantly from 35 to 53 percent of Internet households. Here’s a more visual representation of the top three categories: “Even with this extraordinary growth in the smartphone and tablet market, PCs are still the most prevalent connected device in U.S. Internet households, and this is a fact that won’t be changing any time soon,” John B
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