“Up to 50% of iPhone users read e-books on tiny screens, according to new research from e-book rental services Oyster Books and Scribd — a trend that suggests consumers might benefit from a larger iPhone,” Quentin Fottrell reports for MarketWatch. “The average customer on both Scribd and Oyster reads for 45 minutes a day, however they don’t necessarily read titles cover to cover. ‘For every four books they open on Oyster, they only end up finishing one of them,’ Stromberg says.”
“Why do people read books on their phones?” Fottrell reports. “It’s easier and safer for readers to catch up on their latest book using their smartphone when they’re stuck in the doctor’s waiting room or sitting on the subway, says Mark Coker, founder of e-book distributor Smashwords.com. ‘More reading is shifting from dedicated e-reading devices to multi-function tablets and smartphones,’ he says. ‘My iPhone is by my side 24 hours a day, whereas my Kindle is — well, I forget where it is right now.'”
“E-book readers also tend to be younger and female, according to research by Pew Research Center’s ‘Internet Omnibus Survey’ of over 1,000 Americans aged 18 and older,” Fottrell reports. “Among all adults surveyed in January 2014 who read a book in the last year, 28% read an e-book (versus 69% who said they read print books and 14% for audiobooks). However, almost half of readers under 30 years of age read an e-book in January 2014 compared with 31% in November 2012 and 25% in December 2011.”
Read more in the full article here.
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I read books on an iPod touch (better than you’d think if you haven’t tried it). A 5″ iPhone would be great for that but maybe not so great as a phone.
I read a lot of books on my iPod touch too. (IPad is great for magazines.) If there were a cellular version of the iPod, it would be a winner, esp if T-mobile offered their free service for it. Love my iPod Touch.
There is a cellular version of the iPod. It’s called the iPhone.
And, you can connect non-cellular iPods via WiFi to update your eBooks.z
I hope Amazon figures out that it is better business to satisfy the customer how the customer wants than how Amazon wants. Drop the Kindle hardware and quit evolving the business that has been trying harder and harder to force customers into their closed ecosystem. Instead offer products and policies that we like and want.
They took away automatic downloads to iOS devices in Audible, and now proclaim “no need to download to your Kindle device.” (They’re using their cloud services instead)
They turned off “My Next Listen” which was a queue of books you created so that when your subscription credits renewed each month a book or books from your queue would be purchased before those credits expired at the end of the month. Their justification for ending this feature that Audible had created before being bought by Amazon was to “make room for new features.”
Ironic that you are concerned about Amazon’s closed system while enthusiastically letting yourself get roped into iOS, with its monopoly app store and limited hardware selection. Once Apple decides it has you, watch the subscription prices ratchet up.
Hey, maybe you could read e-books on an iPad! Ya think? Wonder if the people at Apple know that.
“whereas my Kindle is — well, I forget where it is right now.”
Line of the day.
Actually no. The handling of graphics and sheet music on all the e-readers I have seen stinks. They are almost there….but not quite yet.
Used my iP for ebooks since 3gs days.
I have the usual reader apps, so it’s simple: just adjust the text to fit and off you go.
Pointless having dedicated machinery when your phone is in your pocket, just like camera, video, music.
Actually, it’s EASIER to read on a smaller screen. The width of each line of text has an optimal width, for the human eye and brain to process most efficiently. That is why (paper) newspapers use “columns” of text. The width of a newspaper column, with the paper held at typical reading distance from the eye, is optimal. And that is about the width of an iPhone (or iPod touch) screen, held in landscape mode.
Physical books are a bit wider, but I think books are compromising a bit on reading efficiency in consideration of the manufacturing of books. No one wants long narrow books, or thicker books with smaller pages.
I find that reading with my iPhone (an older one with 3.5-inch screen), held horizontally, is ideal. I can read with more quickly, with less eye-strain. Small screen also means lighter device. I can basically read in ANY position. I can even lie flat on my back with hold the device above my head, with one hand. I can’t do that with the physical book or a larger tablet-sized device, for any extended period.
Who the hell is Stromberg??
Keep like this admin, thank you so much.
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