IDPF survey of e-book buyers: PDA platform and eReader lead–and, yes, book prices matter
PDAs (79 percent) are by far the top platform for reading e-books, according to an informative, IDPF-commisioned survey of e-book buyers. Laptops follow (8 percent). And perhaps not so coincidentally the leading format is eReader, the former PalmReader. Biggest complaints were about the costs of e-books, lack of enough titles, and, yes, DRM and format hassles. I’d urge you to read the full report, which is in PDF.
Speaking of which, PDF (10 percent) is far behind eReader (53 percent), MS Reader (15 percent), and Mobipocket (13 percent) in terms of the format the respondents generally use to read books. Regular buyers dominated the survey, and it’s clear they want to enjoy books for real on their machines rather than just print out PDFs on paper.
Kudos to the IDPF for releasing the report free of charge–I’d like to see more of this.
Methodology:
Invitations to fill out the survey were made via IDPF’s email lists to approximately 6,000 people and directly to eBook customers from two leading eBook retailers, www.ereader.com and www.fictionwise.com. This is especially important to keep in mind because the customers of the above retailers may purchase and use eBooks differently than customers who purchase at other retailers. That said, with over 700 respondents to the survey and the participation of two leading eBook retailers, we are confident that the views expressed below represent the combined views of a significant sampling of current eBook users.
Related: Earlier IDPF surveys.
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