How Do You Read Your eBooks?
When I first started thinking about setting up ePublishingDaily.com - during the silly season - I went through the whole research phase that every startup goes through.
I outlayed some hard-earned money (not everything’s for free on the Web) to conduct various surveys and focus groups on the eBook industry to help me get a clear picture.
One of the questions was: How do you Read your eBooks?
Computer Monitor: 63%
Laptop: 19%
PDA: 8%
TabletPC: 7%
eBook reader: 3%
The survey size was 496.
A few thoughts:
I was surprised by the low number of eBooks read on PDAs.
What didn’t surprise me was that the vast majority read their eBooks on their computers.
I wonder with all these new eBook readers being released this year what the results will show in 12 months time?
14 Responses to “How Do You Read Your eBooks?”
By John Evans (Syntagma) on Mar 1, 2006 | Reply
Yep, I’m almost always on the computer too.
By Duane on Mar 1, 2006 | Reply
Some people refer to PDFs as ebooks (especially when selling them :)). I almost always print my PDFs and take them with me. Although the really massive ones, like programming reference books, I’ll keep on the computer. Other stuff, like project gutenberg classic texts, I would take with me on the PDA. If it’s pleasure reading, I don’t really see sitting behind the PC. I read during down times - doctor’s waiting room, in line the bagel shop, waiting for kids - so I need something portable.
By Terry on Mar 1, 2006 | Reply
I have this survey in my book marks http://www.idpf.org/doc_library/surveys/IDPF_eBook_User_Survey_2006.pdf I don’t remember exactly where I found it, but it’s findings greatly differ from yours. Their survey group was only slighty larger than yours.
Terry
By ryan on Mar 1, 2006 | Reply
I always read mine on either my PDA or on my web-slate. Currently, I carry about 120 novels and around 200 short-stories on my Tungsten. I hate being stuck somewhere with nothing to read…
By Martin Neumann on Mar 1, 2006 | Reply
John - yep same here and the laptop when I’m on the road.
Duane - interesting you print them. I don’t think I’ve ever printed one myself. On a PDA I’ve tried it twice and it’s just too damn small :-) gave me a headache after a while. But then again, my PDA is fairly old…
Terry - I’ve written a post on the IDPF survey that’s coming today. The difference is that survey their sampling was pretty narrow imo - from memory they surveyed buyers from Fictionwise and ereader.com whereas my survey was done amongst normal web users and bloggers. That’s a big difference. If you’re a regular customer at those eBook retailers then you really are an early adopter in this industry and thus are more intune with the technology on offering.
Ryan - I hear ya about being stuck somewhere with nothing to read. I guess while we all wait for these eReaders to come out I’ll have to give my PDA another try :-)
By Duane on Mar 1, 2006 | Reply
I tend to print them if they’re roughly 10-50 pages. Normally this is best for computer tutorials where there’ll be a significant number of tables, examples or other formatting-dependent blocks that do not translate well to plain text or reading on the PDA. I think the longest thing I printed was “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom”, a small novel by Cory Doctorow. I think that was about 70 pages. Oh, and the http://www.changethis.com manifestos are especially nice to print, because when you’re done you can hand them off to the next person to read. Sometimes having a physical thing to hold and pages to turn is a nice feeling.
By Terry on Mar 1, 2006 | Reply
Martin,
I don’t claim to be an expert on it. It was just your results were vastly different. Your explanation as to why makes sense to me. I think both surveys are important to consider when exploring e-books. Knowing that the “normal” users will tend to read on computes, while the “early adopter” crowd favours PDAs.
In my opinion what is really missing is the IPOD of e-book readers that will pull everyone together.
Terry
By Duane on Mar 1, 2006 | Reply
Terry, it’s funny you say that - the ipod itself certainly can function as an ebook reader, about as good as a typical PDA (basic black and white functionality with simple hyperlinking). I have yet to meet anybody that actually uses it for that, although I regularly see various cool things you can do, like the latest project to put the whole of wikipedia onto an ipod.
One of the things that put the ipod firmly on the map, not counting the sex appeal of ipod-as-fashion-statement, is the music store. The ability to buy single track music sure had a huge impact on it’s adoption rate. It’s hard to find an analogous case for books. Will we see the resurgence of the short story, novella, or other form of short fiction? I know that audio books tend to stay upwards of $30, even after the book has gone paperback and you can get it for $7. So how much should an ebook cost, and what do you get for your money?
By Lynette on Mar 2, 2006 | Reply
If it’s short books and tutorials I print them but almost always read them on my PDA. With Plucker+ PDAConverter combo I get my PDF’s transfered over to my Palm easily. Even the ones I purchased :-)
By John Evans (Syntagma) on Mar 2, 2006 | Reply
Slightly off-topic: I found this in Darren’s post about the new Ether service –
“Ether take 15% of your income from the call and handle all the credit card costs, call costs etc. They also have two other services that I’m sure will appeal to some bloggers also:
“1. They have a method for selling digital content which I think some bloggers will find useful for selling special reports, e-books etc.”
Interesting.
By Martin Neumann on Mar 2, 2006 | Reply
Duane - thanks for the changethis link - a new one for me.
I think that’s what Sony are trying to do with their upcoming reader - their own iStore but for eBooks. Think it’s called Connect.
I think pricing of an eBook is relative to the topic. For fiction it should be significantly less than a paperback. For non-fiction it differs slightly, imo. Timely topics that require quite a bit of research can be sold at a higher premium. I see a lot of non-fiction eBooks price points at $47, $67, and $97. That to me is high … but if there’s a market for it then why not. Personally, from my experience, I have priced my non-fiction eBooks at around $39 and they sell.
Terry - Yeah, both surveys are from two completely different sets of people - but it’s been good to see the differences.
Lynette - Just for interest sake, seeing you read your eBooks on a PDA - would you go for the Sony Reader and if so at what price would you be willing to pay for it (it’s stated at $350, but I’m sure it’ll go down down quickly in price)?
John - Very interesting. I’m heading off to Darren’s site, right about … now, to check it out. Thanks for the heads-up
By ryan on Mar 2, 2006 | Reply
I, for one, am not willing to pay a large sum for a dedicated e-book reading device. I see many short-coming in the devices that are currently on offef (or to be offered):
1. I really need a multifunctional device and portability. As a medical professional, many of the e-books I carry and regularly access are medical references which I use on the job in the workplace. At the same time, oftem need to access my contacts, my schedule, my notes and specialized clincal apps. Having all of my clinical references in a seperate device would not be helpful to me at all.
2. Almost every dedicated e-book reader I’ve seen to date has been limited to either one or just a few formats. Currently, I use three major formats on my Tungsten: eReader, iSilo, Mobipocket and TealDoc. Additionally I have many text-files onbaord as well. I currently have the ability to create content for eReader, iSilo and TealDoc. This is very important to me.
3. I’ve not seen a dedicated e-book reader to date that is easily Mac-compatable.
Those are my issues with dedicated e-book readers.
–ryan
By Lynette on Mar 2, 2006 | Reply
Martin, for the same reasons Ryan just mentioned, the answer is no. As a mom and entrepreneur I want to have all my schedules, wikis, books, games :-)! and what not at hand. What can I say, I like multi-function gadgets.
By ppc search engine on Apr 19, 2006 | Reply
I use eBook reader.