• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, May 16, 2012

Admit it. You watched your iPad in bed last night. Yeah, you were totally into a sitcom. And the other day? You were stretched out on the couch checking out the cat videos your sister sent you.

Because despite Apple’s best efforts to Svengali us into believing the iPad is a computer — hey, who needs keyboards anyway? — we’re smart enough to figure out what they really are. Toys! But they’re good for brands. Here’s why.

Tablet owners use the devices at home three-quarters of the time, according to a study conducted by Viacom. In the home, 96% of consumers use them in the living room; 94% in the bedroom, 75% in the home office, 70% on the porch and 68% in the kitchen.

Let’s not forget that nearly half use them in the bathroom.

Outside of the home, tablets are commonly used in airports, coffee shops, outdoor public places, appointments and then at work.

eMarketer predicts there will be 54.8 million tablet users in the US by the end of this year, and 89.5 million by 2014.

With these usage partners and growth projections, marketers should look more closely at their video strategies for tablets. FreeWheel said in its just-released report on video viewing that the iPad comprises 27% of all non-PC/Mac video viewing. But the views aren’t being monetized fully. “When considering average video ad views per video view, PC/Mac generated the highest monetization rates with nearly one video ad for each video view across all content lengths. Xbox and iPad are well behind that at 0.31 and 0.40 video ads per video view respectively,” FreeWheel said.

Marketers — get your tablet-formatted ads ready to pitch us in the living room, bedroom, and gulp -- the john.