eBook Report: A Third Of iPad Owners Don't Use Device For Reading Books

Yahoo! Finance:

Media and publishing market forecast firm Simba Information, publisher of the "Book Publishing Report" newsletter, has estimated about 35% of iPad owners haven't used the devices to read e-books. The estimate is based on the preliminary findings from a nationwide survey of over 1,800 respondents, who were selected on a nationally representative basis.

Read the whole story: Yahoo! Finance

Comments

[Robert Schmidt]

12:22 PM on 11/23/2010

So 2/3's do big deal

[AfroGoddess]

02:12 PM on 11/21/2010

They didn't need a study to tell them that the iPad is an incidental e-book reader! I knew it as soon as I saw it coming.

Apple started what amounted to an old skool rap beef; they picked a fight with the biggest thing they could find to make themselves look bigger, badder, and better to buy. iPad's competition is really netbooks and notebooks. But considering that the thing doesn't even have a USB port, it was always easier to compete down against the one good note Kindle than to compete up against real computers.

Also, to be frank, any avid reader isn't going to walk around with something that big. A kindle, on the other hand, can fit easily in one hand.

[ChelleAgain]

12:22 PM on 11/22/2010

Steve Jobs was famous for saying that people don't read these days and that a book reader is pretty much doomed to failure (paraphrase.) I think the iPad reflects that cynicism, that belief. There are many people who do use the iPad for that purpose, but a lot of people purchased it for apps and all the rest, and "oh yeah, I can read books." Can read books is not the same as will read books. These people don't want a Kindle and don't understand why anyone else would want a dedicated book reader, missing that a Kindle is modeled after a non-tech print book. All print books need to do is allow people to read them and serve as a fly-swatter. (Kidding!) Anyhow, the attitude is often a give-away of a non-reader.

Jobs and Bezos, in the end, both got the buyers they wanted and expected.

[Lev Raphael]

08:43 AM on 11/21/2010

I'm not an Apple person and I'm not an early adapter, but I got the iPad for my book tour in Germany (http://tinyurl.com/23oh2xd) because it did everything I thought I'd need: email, Skype calls, checking news and weather wherever I was, watching downloaded movies and yes, reading books. I read two in transit and while there. And as for movies, HD films look fantastic. Thanks to Nook, iBooks, and Kindle, I now have plenty of choice when a book catches my fancy: download it or get the physical book. With thousands of books on shelves throughout my house, it's a choice I'm glad to have.

[Matthew May]

08:40 AM on 11/21/2010

I could never get into an IPad for reading books.. something about actually holding a book, the smell.. turning the pages.. can't replace it. Not to mention for the cost of it you could buy a nice library...

[mrcontinental]

09:51 AM on 11/21/2010

I have over 6 Gigs of ebooks on my IPad and that IS a library. I can go from Nabokov to Stephen King to Poe to Wilde to CCNA for Dummies at the drop of a hat. It has revolutionize my reading on the road as well as limited my need for a laptop all the time. I am currently watching lectures from Stanford University on ITunes U on Developing Apps for IOS for IPhone for free. It is a wonderful tool educational tool.

[tploomis]

10:53 PM on 11/20/2010

I suspect that 35 percent of IPad owners don't read books of any kind.

[AfroGoddess]

02:14 PM on 11/21/2010

I don't know about the percentage, but I do agree with you. iPad was the hot thing in the room and everyone crowded around.

I know folks who bought the iPad to read books, and aren't avid readers. They were told that was what it was for, they wanted to buy something new, and they bought a couple of books for the thing that they haven't finished reading yet!

[Skyhawk]

11:07 AM on 11/20/2010

I read webcomics and HuffPo on it. Then again it's my sister's and I just borrow it on occasion.

[Leviathan21]

10:35 AM on 11/20/2010

This confirms my belief that the iPad is not in competition with Kindle. They are designed for totally different markets. If you are looking specifically for an e-reader, the Kindle is the best product for you. But, if you want multimedia things then I'd go with the iPad.

[RedDogBear]

01:09 PM on 11/20/2010

I agree with most of what you said but I still use my iPad for eBooks constantly. I haven't purchased a paper book since I got the iPad. For me I wasn't even thinking of eBooks when I bought the iPad. I needed something portable for a long non business trip to watch movies, play music, etc. But once I started using eBooks I was hooked.

[Lev Raphael]

08:44 AM on 11/21/2010

On a flight back from Paris, I sat next to a woman with a Kindle and we compared her reader and my iPad. She decided to get an iPad for her husband for Xmas because of everything it could do in addition to downloading books.

[totalliberal]

02:12 AM on 11/20/2010

I have a Sony e-reader. I use it because it works ouside in the sun and the glare doesn't hurt my eyes at night. Easy to carry around also.

[Jack W Perry]

07:52 PM on 11/19/2010

Look at it the other way. 65% of iPad owners have used it to read a book. Given so few Americans actually read books, this could be a huge boon for reading. A new book can have a weekly sale of 3,000 copies and make the NYT best-seller's list. So, when a device as successful as the iPad includes reading to people, it is great.

So let's be positive about this and not take the negative route.

[MikeyMike]

06:01 PM on 11/19/2010

It seems I'm the only commenter who has one of each. I read on the Kindle and I watch videos (Netflix) on the iPad. The Kindle lives in my bag, the fragile iPad stays home. I think I'm pretty average, other than being a gadget geek.

[Lev Raphael]

08:45 AM on 11/21/2010

The iPad is fragile if you have a thin cover. I have a well-padded Targus cover and don't feel at all worried.

[MikeyMike]

12:33 PM on 11/22/2010

Fair warning Lev. I had a well padded Targus cover for my first Kindle, managed to drop it on concrete and it broke. Amazon replaced it for free. I don't think Apple will do that with the iPad. The next gen tablets will be sturdier, lighter, and cheaper, just like the first "notebooks" were fragile and about 30 lbs.

[Personanondata]

05:53 PM on 11/19/2010

20% of television owners don't watch sports. I made that up but as equally stupid as your headline. http://huff.to/bSf6e1 via @huffingtonpost

[Box Head Man]

04:57 PM on 11/19/2010

I bought an iPad because I wanted to publish a new kind of children's book that contained videos that matched the seussian style rhyme. I thought it the perfect device for a children's book that was not an App but a completely new kind of enhanced ebook. By the end of the four months it took to develop and publish Box Head Man in the Apple enhanced book store I fell completely in love with the iPad. I'm not trying to sell you on the iPad but I can tell you that it has changed my life in a very good way. My guess is the iPad will be the number one techno-gift for Christmas and I hope my book will be the number one children's book download to go with it.

[RedDogBear]

01:11 PM on 11/20/2010

Good luck with your book. I had a similar experience, I bought the iPad for a specific long personal trip I was taking and expected it would just gather dust once I got home but I use it all the time and in all sorts of ways I never imagined when I bought it.

[Lev Raphael]

08:47 AM on 11/21/2010

Yes, I got it for a multitude of reasons as noted above, but use it at home much more than I expected.

[Victor Saymong]

03:51 PM on 11/19/2010

SO? 65% of iPad owners DO use it to read e-books - which is great. Fantastic. The iPad is not a book reader. It is a multipurpose device one of which is as an e-book reader. If you want a reader only, you'd be better getting something else.

To posters who say the iPad is little or nothing more than a glorified iPod - you are dead wrong. The iPad is comparable to a fully-functioning laptop which is much more than a music player. Please be honest. If you don't like Apple products just say so or keep your comments to yourself.

[Lev Raphael]

08:50 AM on 11/21/2010

Apple hostility is something I encountered when I told people I was thinking of getting one, and then after I bought it. It's something I had only read about before.

As you say, the iPad is not a dedicated book reader, so it's ridiculous to compare it to those devices that are. It really more like a netbook and as a traveling author (50 events in the last year and a half in Europa and N. America) I have found it terrific for writing, taking notes, and much much more--not excluding reading.

People have to do the research and ask themselves very specifically what they want it for. One major use was Skype calls and that was great calling home for free when I was on the road.

[interlude]

03:15 PM on 11/19/2010

This survey looks flawed. It's similar to 'revealing' that not all seats in all are cars are carrying passengers.

Not everyone reads books - whether on paper or on electronic devices. It doesn't address those used in specific settings such as medical offices, etc. There's also the possibility of partial tech savvy owners as there were with VCRs.

[Schweik]

01:57 PM on 11/19/2010

Ipad is not a reading device. It's a glorified Ipod.