The e-reader market will be no more than 25 million at present prices, according to Sarah Rotman Epps, a senior analyst at Forrester Research whom the Washington Post quotes today. Ah, but won’t costs drop a lot in the next year or so?
So who typically buys dedicated e-readers right now? “…a 47-year-old married man with a college degree and an average household income of $116,000. About 30 percent of e-reader owners use them on business trips, while about 17 percent rely on e-readers during commutes. They read about 3.5 books each month, more than the average Internet user. About 83 percent consider themselves ‘technology optimists.’” The article is rich with other statistics even if we’ve seen a bunch of them before.
Post retail writer Ylan Q. Mui’s article is also notable for the concluding words: "Sony’s Haber argues that if it’s women you’re after, technology is man’s best friend. Pull out a book in a bar and you look lonely. But whip out a Sony Reader and watch the magic happen. "If you want to meet a girl," he says, "don’t get a dog, get a reader." Agree?
An aside: It’s nice to see a Post writer with a decent WordPress site (with help from a friend). I just hope that the Posties’ guidelines don’t inhibit her. They might. The site seems mostly a collection of repros of Post stories. Still, with the articles presented by topic and organized in a certain way, you at least can get a sense of where Ylan Mui is coming from.
Related: The best of today’s e-book readers, in PC World.
Image: CC-licensed photo by Ed Yourdon.
I dunno about that. I read on my Kindle all time in public have never been approached by a woman. Of course, I’m already married and close to the 47 average age, and usually waiting for my wife to finish shopping, but, still, not much of a come hither vibe emanating from my reader.
Either my eBookWise is not as romantic or other things scare them away but I’ve also never attracted women through eReading. Very funny, though, and what a sales gimmick, even if not true.
Rob Preece
Publisher
“But whip out a Sony Reader and watch the magic happen…”
You wish. Still, it should sell a few Sonys, and that’s the point, isn’t it? Let’s not forget that Sony was responsible for the rootkit debacle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_rootkit
and is about as trustworthy as an overbred rottweiler.