Type of Article: MacTech Blog

How big can this iPad thing get? A lot bigger still, apparently, based on new data from eMarketer (http://www.emarketer.com), a “digital intelligence” research firm. The company says 1-in-3 online consumers will use a tablet by 2014.

Tablet devices, in their current incarnation, have only been available for a couple years, but the iPad has propelled them to rapid increases in ownership and usage. eMarketer estimates that by the end of 2011, 33.7 million Americans will use a tablet device at least monthly — a rise of 158.6% over last year, the year the iPad was released.

Economist Martin Sullivan says Apple is no better than other multinationals that have been “painted as corporate tax dodgers by major media outlets.” This would seem to contradict a Nov. 3 report in which Citizens for Tax Justice estimated that Apple paid an average effective U.S. tax rate of 31% between 2008 and 2010.

That’s close to the ostensible corporate income tax rate of 35%, notes the “San Francisco Chronicle” (http://macte.ch/coRY2). Out of 280 companies in the study, only 49 had a higher effective tax rate than Apple.

Take this one with a grain of salt, but “Side-Line Music Magazine” (http://macte.ch/r31IY) says the CD format will be abandoned by major labels in just over a year.