Digital consumers want digital books
Consumers and trend spotters both suggest we don’t know enough yet about eBook readers for them to be used widely.
CEO of NBT Research, a trend monitoring company, William Higham says:
“I think the mistake is to say it’s not taken off yet, therefore it won’t. The reason it’s not taken off yet is they haven’t necessarily got the design or the marketing right.
He suggests while book publishers might have been sceptical about the demand for digital book devices, he has seen more interest in eReaders at recent publishing conferences.
Preliminary findings from an online survey for http://journalism.bournemouth.ac.uk reveal awareness of eBook technology is limited.
96% of people surveyed said they prefer to read text in printed format rather than on screen citing concerns about eyestrain and glare.
This illustrates that many consumers are not aware of eInk technology and how it tries to mimic the look of a printed page and doesn’t blur even if an eBook page is turned at an angle away from the reader.
When asked if eBooks “tried to replicate the look of paper rather than a computer screen”, 52% said it would encourage them to read an eBook.
Most people have never used an eReader, many aren’t sure what eInk technology is and an overwhelming 96% of adults still prefer books over eBooks, according to a recent survey.
100 people completed the online survey for http://journalism.bournemouth.ac.uk between June 5th and 28th.
Very few have tried out some of the main eReaders currently available with 7% having used the Sony Reader and only 2% for the Cool-er Reader. Although it is currently unavailable outside the US, 4% of respondents said they have used an Amazon Kindle.
Overall, 77% have never used an eReader.
Readers still want to “sprawl out to comfortably read a book” with 96% saying they prefer printed books. The flexibility and portability of a book was also frequently mentioned and many said they enjoyed the “smell of a new book”.
Some commented that they were not as familiar with technology and there seemed to be a low overall awareness that eInk tries to make eBooks look like printed books and doesn’t have the same glare as a regular computer screen.
Slightly less than half of people surveyed (47%) said the idea of eInk replicating the look of traditional paper would encourage them to try an eReader.
