• by Aaron Baar , September 16, 2013

Tablets continue to be the hot device for everyone, but no one is finding more appeal than kids (and their parents). 

According to research from The NPD Group, nearly 80% of parents who have children between the ages of 2 and 14 have some type of mobile device (such as a cell phone, smartphone or tablet) -- a jump of 16% over the previous year. 

In 2012, after conducting its first study looking at kids and apps, fewer than half the families surveyed had smart devices, and only about a third of children had used a tablet or smartphone. This year, 51% of children had used a smartphone or tablet, and furthermore, nearly 40% of these kids were considered a primary user of these devices. 

Gaming remains the top activity on smart devices, with 87% of children 2-14 saying playing games was their favorite activity (and girls have quickly caught up to boys among those using such apps). 

And there’s revenue to be had: according to NPD, about a third of parents are spending more on apps for their children than they did last year. And they’re willing to pay more. When looking across all app types (which include movie apps, educational games apps and books and reading apps), parents are willing to pay an average of $5.90 per app, according to NPD.

“The opportunities to upsell to these consumers are significant,” said Russ Crupnick, senior vice president of industry analysts at The NPD Group, in a statement. 

Despite the dramatic increase in smart device and app usage,  traditional toys (such as vehicles, stuffed animals, building sets or action figures and dolls), are still being used, according to NPD. “We don’t see a trend of children, or their parents, abandoning traditional toys. Not in this report and not in the other recent surveys on how play is evolving,” Crupnick said.