DailyTech - EBook Popularity, Readership Soars as Industry Faces Government Scrutiny

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Gadgets EBook Popularity, Readership Soars as Industry Faces Government Scrutiny
Tiffany Kaiser - April 5, 2012 11:48 AM

16 comment(s) - last by shin0bi272.. on Apr 6 at 10:05 AM

(Source: albanycountylibrary.org)

More affordable devices helped to boost e-book popularity, especially over the 2011 holiday season, accoring to Pew Research

New surveys by the Pew Research Center found that U.S. citizens are reading electronic books now more than ever, with one in five American adults reading at least one e-book per year.

Lee Rainie, leader of the Pew Internet Project, conducted one survey from November 16 to December 21, 2011 and others in January and February 2012. The survey consists of 2,986 interviews with Americans aged 16 and up.

The surveys found that 15 percent more U.S. citizens are reading e-books daily than they were two years ago. The research also discovered that 21 percent of adult Americans had read an e-book within the previous year in February 2012, which was an increase from 17 percent in December 2011.

According to the survey, U.S. e-book readers are more likely to be under the age of 50, live in households that make over $50,000 per year and have some college education. Also, 88 percent of e-book readers have read printed books within the last year. The survey found that 45 percent of Americans surveyed prefer e-books while a close 43 percent prefer print books.

The increase in e-book popularity is greatly attributed to the rise of tablets and e-book readers over the past two years. E-readers like Amazon's Kindle and tablets like Apple's iPad were originally released at high prices, giving e-books a bit of a slow start. The Amazon Kindle launched in 2007 for an introductory price of $399 while the first iPad launched in 2010 for a $499 price tag.

As time went on, cheaper alternatives made their way to the mobile electronics scene, such as affordable Kindle e-readers and cheaper tablets like the Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's Nook. More affordable devices helped to boost e-book popularity, especially over the 2011 holiday season, according to Pew Research. In 2008, the e-book industry made $78 million sales. In 2011, this number jumped to $1.7 billion.

For those with high-priced devices like the iPad, apps like iBooks 2 and iBook Author helped e-book popularity. Just three days after launching both apps, the number of downloads for both hit 440,000.

The survey showed that just over 40 percent of U.S. readers used digital readers such as the Fire and the Nook for e-books while just over 40 percent used computers.

"People's relationship to books is a central part of culture," said Rainie. "So when that relationship is in transition like it is now, it's an interesting thing to mark."

While e-books may be making a splash on the digital scene, they've also had some troubles recently. For instance, the U.S. Department of Justice threatened Apple and five book publishers with a lawsuit for allegedly conspiring to raise e-book prices through an agency sales model last month, meaning that publishers were allowed to set the price of the book and Apple would receive a 30 percent cut. Publishers were then not allowed to let rivals sell the same book for a lower price.

In addition, book publisher Random House tripled the price of many of its e-book titles it sells to libraries back in March, which angered many libraries around the country.

Source: Yahoo News

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Solution:

By Quadrillity on 4/5/2012 12:47:20 PM , Rating: 3

Solution: Don't spend your hard earned money on overpriced media (cough cough, MPAA/RIAA) and maybe prices would lower to realistic and fair amounts.

I refuse to buy and e-book until 1) I can let someone else borrow it for an unlimited amount of time 2) the price of not having physical property is justified. Who in their right mind would spend $60 on a digital textbook that you can't resell or even lend? Have they lost their mind?

On a more serious note, you actually don't own that e-book you essentially borrow it from the publisher. Doesn't anyone have a serious answer as to why so many people are willing to buy virtual property (that you don't really own in the first place)?

RE: Solution:

By Mitch101 on 4/5/2012 1:10:51 PM , Rating: 3

Part of me agrees especially on the price of a virtual book but.

1-1's and 0's are lighter than a single text book.
2-Video demonstrations can be embedded in e-books your not limited to static images.
3-They revise and instructors change books anyhow reducing the ability to resell the book.
4-Its a paper waste. Chances are I wont sell it and Im going to throw it away years down the road.
5-I can search an e-book much more than the index of a book.
6-I can change the font size of an e-book.
7-I can make a tablet read it to me.

There are times where I like the book in hand but technology has taken over for me.

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RE: Solution:

By Quadrillity on 4/5/2012 2:09:17 PM , Rating: 2

Maybe I should have clarified (I figured everyone would assume that I already knew the positives of electronic media). I understand that there are some very legitimate reasons for this kind of market, my qualm is the modified idea of ownership. As I said earlier, you don't actually own (by the definition of traditional ownership) any of the material that you have purchased.

I especially agree with you on the part of searching and indexing. Don't get me wrong, I understand fully the pros of a digital format. What I don't understand is that so many people readily pay full retail prices for intangible goods.

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RE: Solution:

By Mitch101 on 4/5/2012 2:55:16 PM , Rating: 2

Paying full price for an electronic blip or data bothers me as well sometimes but I cant confirm the time and effort that went into creating the book. Children's books that are less than a paragraph long I cant imagine paying full price for but tech and training books possibly.

Hope your not getting hung up on being down rated a point and feeling you need to clarify. Without writing a book of your own someone is going to read and take it out of context anyhow. That is if they read your post at all sometimes I think people read the subject and vote and I think a lot don't read the articles they just come in and comment. You should have to take a quiz before your allowed to comment to ensure they read the article. I feel a EULA coming on and becoming a human centipede.

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RE: Solution:

By Quadrillity on 4/5/2012 4:36:15 PM , Rating: 2

Thanks Mitch, I really appreciate the replies. I love it when I get down-rated for asking legitimate questions. Most of all when those who down-rate never seem to offer their opinions on the subject lol.

Anyway, I guess it all comes down to what society en masse think is acceptable. If they continue to keep paying (what I consider) absurd prices for virtual products, then publishers will undoubtedly keep supplying it.

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RE: Solution:

By Mitch101 on 4/5/2012 10:53:17 PM , Rating: 2

Yea there should be a drop down for why an item was down rated even forcing a one word reason. I think people do it sometimes with a secondary account trying to get their post/thread they start at the top. Not always clear why something is down rated.

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RE: Solution:

By motqalden on 4/5/2012 2:44:48 PM , Rating: 2

I didn't think I would enjoy e-books, but since I started reading them on my phone I am hooked and will never look back.

1. I have lent books to people and rarely do I get them back. If I do they are usually worn.

2. The cost of having the physical books is multiplied by the fact that you need shelving. I have 3 book shelves stacked full and taking up space. Also if you move you have to box them up and pay again for moving them. The bookshelf? forget about it, they are not made for moving and often fall apart.

3. Sell my books and texts? Are you joking? I can bring my used books to a bookstore and get maybe 50c each while they mark them back up to the same price as a New E-dition. This does not cover the costs of gas bringing them to the store.

4.I can buy that next book in the series when I finish reading the previous book @ 1:00am. I don't have to wait and go to the store and wasted more gas and trees. Often I can get older books for the same price as a used book.

5. Because my books are on my phone, I always have that book with me to read when having to wait for transit or whatever.
I can remember numerous times wishing I had brought that book with me while it gathered dust on my stupid bookshelf

quote:
On a more serious note, you actually don't own that e-book you essentially borrow it from the publisher. Doesn't anyone have a serious answer as to why so many people are willing to buy virtual property (that you don't really own in the first place)?

Borrow?
Really?
I somehow doubt that I will be asked to return my e-books because my loan is over and this makes you seem like a cheapskate that is unwilling to give the Author there due.

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RE: Solution:

By Quadrillity on 4/5/2012 4:23:45 PM , Rating: 2

@3. Evidently you have never been a college student. I can buy a textbook for $80 and sell it to someone else for the same price (or a little more or less, depending). In this instance, it makes zero sense to buy an e-book unless you are going to keep and reference it after your class. You cannot resell an e-book, and that's my point.

quote:
Borrow? Really? I somehow doubt that I will be asked to return my e-books because my loan is over and this makes you seem like a cheapskate that is unwilling to give the Author there due.

Read the EULA when you purchase any type of name brand media. It has various (and often absurd) restrictions and they word it in such a way that you truly don't own what you have purchased.

And no, I am not saying that it's a type of lease. I think you are making assumptions here; I do understand that works deserve to be credited. I just don't understand how you can mark up a virtual product. Unless you think the instructions to align a magnetic arrangement of 1's and 0's is worth the same (if not more in some cases) than a physical product.

No-one has come up with an answer to the single largest problem with e-media. How can you call it ownership of a product if you can't resell it. Until then, it's not even close to worth it to pay full retail price for the physical product. I guess it all comes down to what you think is acceptable.

This is somewhat the same as Sony considering to disallow used games for the upcoming Playstation. How in the hell is that fair to consumers?!

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RE: Solution:

By motqalden on 4/5/2012 4:43:23 PM , Rating: 2

Actually I still have my college books and I do reference them from time to time. While you can get nearly the same value for selling some textbooks, revisions often happen that render them useless for resale.

Yes there may be restrictions in the EULA, which may be absurd but how does this affect my enjoyment of my copy in any way?

If anything the cheaply manufactured softcover books that fall apart after 3 people read them are more of a loan. Try taking your beat up old book with missing pages in and asking for a new one. Your loan is up when your book falls apart. :)

6. I never lose my page again and waste valuable reading time trying to figure out where I left off.

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RE: Solution:

By Quadrillity on 4/5/2012 4:59:54 PM , Rating: 2

You do offer some valid points. I never said that e-media didn't have it's place, I just tend to think that it's way over priced and unfairly licensed.

There are a LOT of pros for e-books though :)

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RE: Solution:

By ilkhan on 4/5/2012 10:58:08 PM , Rating: 2

A better solution, don't p[l]ay their games.

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RE: Solution:

By shin0bi272 on 4/6/2012 10:05:46 AM , Rating: 2

I totally agree but take heart once the ubiquity of ebooks and ereaders is old news there will be software to counteract this stalinist grasp that the manufacturers have on the technology. The internet... finds a way. To paraphrase Jeff Goldblum.

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Re: Ebook Popularity

By flexy on 4/5/2012 2:41:25 PM , Rating: 2

In the past, i enjoyed the occasional book. That was, before i got too heavily involved with computers.
In the last years, i didn't touch one single book.

My new Kindle now finally enables me to read again and i enjoy it big time. Those gadgets are a "god given", they just make so much sense.

We live in a time where everything is dominated by movies, video games, TV etc. and the joy of actually reading a book would have almost been forgotten. I am very glad that thanks to the Kindles and other devices, ebooks and actually *reading* are on the rise again.

For once, i *do* think that reading will also increase skills like language, writing, grammar etc..since people are using a medium which not only "teaches" again how to actually spell and write (as opposed to facebook, twitter, social media etc.)..and i am also sure that it's a lot more beneficial to "exercise" your brain as opposed to constant exposure to stupid media like reality TV, facebook etc.

It least something which works against the current trend of global stupification.

Don't get me wrong, i love computer games and all the joys of modern entertainment - but at times i think there is nothing better than reading a good book.

RE: Re: Ebook Popularity

By Quadrillity on 4/5/2012 4:30:46 PM , Rating: 2

I agree; good post!

Parent

1984

By tigz1218 on 4/5/2012 5:01:25 PM , Rating: 2

When I read 1984 I would laugh at their method of removing and updating information to fit their agenda. I always it would be impossible to do that and not have a single piece left behind and to get all of them done so quickly so multiple versions were not out at the same.

Enter E-Books.

about pew

By shin0bi272 on 4/6/2012 10:00:00 AM , Rating: 2

when pew does a presidential poll they poll 1009 people. when they do an internet poll they poll over 2000... Who says they arent hand picking their responses?