A survey of mobile tablet users found that the vast majority (80%) use them in the living room, while in the UK and France, nearly seven in ten use it in the bedroom, while almost four in 10 Europeans log-on in the kitchen.

Over 90% of owners use their tablet for at least an hour every day, but non-Apple tablet owners use their tablet more than iPad owners.

"Previously, people had to leave the room and sit down at a computer to use the Internet. A tablet offers a more convenient and social means of access, allowing users to join in with family activities while remaining on-line," commented Martin Garner, Senior Vice President, Internet, at CCS Insight.

Tablet use on holiday is also popular, with 58% of owners packing the device in their suitcase. "The Internet is now so tightly built into many people's daily lives that they want to continue the connected lifestyle when they take a break from work," added Garner.

Tablet usage among commuters is surprisingly low -- just 15% take their tablet when travelling to and from work. We believe that people want to use tablets in this way, but that the cost of 3G tariffs and limited availability of Wi-Fi are encouraging people to opt for e-readers like Amazon's Kindle instead.

The CCS Insight survey also showed that only 7% of owners use their tablet mainly for work, compared with 60% who use it mainly for leisure.

"This statistic will alarm tablet-makers that are trying to sell devices to the enterprise market," said Garner. "Business customers will not engage with tablets until they see a vast improvement in enterprise software on tablets."

Consumers in the UK are the heaviest users of tablets in the six European markets surveyed, averaging 2.8 hours a day. An overwhelming 95% of UK tablet owners use their device for at least an hour a day and 11% are online for more than five hours each day, according to the survey.

Interestingly, non-iPad owners are recording an average of 30 minutes more usage a day than people with Apple iconic device. This trend was evident in all markets surveyed. "We found that younger people are more likely to own cheaper non-Apple devices, and that these users tend to be most engaged with social networks," said Garner.