Seventy per cent of British iPad users who were surveyed said that they read newspapers and magazines on the tablet computer, while a similar amount, 63 per cent, said they used the Apple device to read ebooks.
The findings are likely to give hope to the media and publishing industries, which have been keen to experiment with iPad apps. However, the survey found the web browsing (98 per cent) and email (94 per cent) were by far the most popular iPad activities.
Exactly half of those surveyed said they had bought more than 20 apps for their iPad, with six per cent of respondents saying that they had bought more than 100.
Almost half of users said the iPad was the device that they spent the most money with, ahead of desktop computers (19 per cent), laptops (16 per cent) and mobile phones (11 per cent).
The survey suggests that the iPad is very much seen as a ‘home’ device, with 95 per cent of respondents saying that they use it in their living room and 89 per cent saying they use it in bed.
Though users were very happy with the iPad - 70 per cent said it was “excellent” - they did have some ideas for improvement. Those surveyed were split between wanting better speakers (22 per cent), longer battery life (20 per cent), a better camera (20 per cent) and a lighter iPad (20 per cent).
The survey, which was carried out last month by Imano Digital Agency, looked at the habits of more than 2,000 British iPad users.
At its annual WWDC event in San Francisco last week, Apple said it had sold more than 25 million iPads in the 14 months since the gadget launched.
The iPad has so far dominated the market for tablet computers but stronger competitors are being released. Last week Taiwan Economic News reported that Asus expects to ship 300,000 Asus Transformer tablets this month - second only to Apple.
BlackBerry manufacturer RIM will launch its own tablet, the PlayBook, in Britain this week.
