MediaPost, one of my favorite sites for trade-specific communications news, reports this from the National Retail Federation:

Smartphones and tablets will play a major part in shoppers’ holiday foraging, with 52.6 percent of smartphone owners using them to sniff out purchases. And those who own tablets are even more keen on shopper technology, with 70.5 percent of tablet owners planning to shop with them.

Note that this doesn’t say “buy.” Just forage. Which I believe means “to seek out.”

When it comes to tablet vs. smartphone use, one element I’ve found interesting is that while retailers and other companies are scrambling to build smartphone apps – Droid and iPhone versions only, let’s be serious – there’s not as high demand by firms to build tablet applications.

This isn’t to say tablets aren’t popular. They are.

But you don’t necessarily need, say, a banking or e-store app on a tablet, because the screen is large enough to accomodate to regular website. Yet banks and retailers are developing phone-specific applications (or at the very least, mobile-optimizing their websites), because they are easier to view on a tiny screen.

It’s easier to browse on a smartphone and buy on a tablet, which brings us to purchasing figures: only 14.1 percent of people plan to buy stuff on a smartphone this holiday season versus 33.8 percent – more than double – who will actually buy goods on a tablet.

Meanwhile, holiday spending – which rises every year, even in bad years, just by a different amount – will see a small increase of 2.8 percent this year. The average for the past decade has been around 2.6 percent.

- Jeff (@jephkelley)