Before the 2011 holiday season, only 10 percent of Americans owned tablets or e-readers. By early January, that number had nearly doubled to 19 percent. It seems like it was a very Merry Christmas for many, indeed. Experts say that price had a lot to do with the increase in ownership. They noted Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble’s Nook tablet had been recently introduced at very low price points before the holiday season commenced. A Pew survey also found that tablets were more popular with the highly educated, while e-readers were women’s gadget of choice.