Nearly 20m people within the UK will use a tablet once or more a month by the tip of this year, a rise of 39 per cent on 2012, where eMarketer identified 14.1m users. By 2017, 52 per cent of the population may have access to 1 of those devices, the research said.

Apple saw 125 per cent growth last year and eMarkteer expects there to be 11.6m iPad owners by the top of this year. This represents 18.2 per cent of the country’s population and 59 per cent of tablet users. However, the research firm expects that share to fall to 40 per cent by 2017 as people select from a broader range of more cost-effective devices.

eMarketer uses survey and traffic data to create its forecasts.