Heard this morning of an account unprecedented in human history.

The Pew Center released a study today saying that the percentage of adults owning a tablet computer nearly doubled in a one-month period over the Christmas holidays.

It’s an astounding number.

Now, what the numbers don’t say is whether there was a single reason for the purchases — the availability of large numbers of books, or a particularly popular program that might change the market (a “killer app”), or whether the reasons for purchase may have something to do with the marriage of the mobile telephone to the laptop computer as a single digital appliance.

I think it’s the latter, and you’re seeing manufacturers trying to outguess each other as to size, functionality, and features. It could be an interesting next few years as these kinds of devices fall into more and more hands.