To further push its Galaxy Tab line (the 10.1 is out this week), Samsung Mobile funded an online survey that found tablets are becoming popular: 90 percent of US consumers either already own a tablet or would consider buying one. The national survey was conducted by Kelton Research and included 1,000 Americans ages 18 and older.

The survey examined the most common use cases for mobile tablets among Americans who already own or would consider purchasing a mobile tablet. Here are the results:

  • 76 percent own or want a tablet for reading the news or books.
  • 64 percent own or want a tablet for watching TV shows or movies.
  • 61 percent own or want a tablet for listening to music.
  • 56 percent own or want a tablet for updating their social networking profiles.
  • 44 percent own or want a tablet for taking pictures or videos.
  • 41 percent own or want a tablet for video chat with loved ones.
  • 34 percent own or want a tablet for staying connected with their co-workers.

The arguably most interesting statistic, however, is that 53 percent survey respondents said they would choose to use their tablet to play games instead of on a PC or console. This is why companies like GameStop and Sony think they have a chance of doing well in this market by creating something a device specifically centered on gaming.

The WiFi version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 with Android 3.1 is available now in 16GB ($500) and 32GB ($600) flavors while the 8.9 will be soon available in 16GB ($470) and 32GB ($570) versions. They join the original 7-inch Galaxy Tab, which has already been quite a success for the company and even received an upgrade to Android 2.3.

The hardware giant is touting the two new devices as the world's thinnest tablets, at just 8.6 millimeters thick. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 weighs 595 grams while the Galaxy Tab 8.9 weighs 470 grams. Both support HSPA+ network speeds of up to 21Mbps, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n connectivity. They also feature a 3 megapixel rear camera and a 2 megapixel front camera, providing seamless 1080p HD video. The two devices are powered by a 1GHz dual core application processor and both feature a 1280 x 800 resolution WXGA display.

What the specs don't mention is that the two devices are preloaded with Readers Hub and Music Hub giving consumers instant access to more than 2.2 million books, 2,000 newspaper (49 languages), 2,300 magazines (22 languages), and 13 million songs. The devices are also designed with Samsung's Social Hub, which will aggregate email, instant messaging, contacts, calendar, and social network connections into a single interface.