Steve Paxhia is President, Beacon Hill Strategic Solutions.
Surveyed 6.000 participants.
Most important features of consumer market: affordable, readable, portable, acquisition and speed. Good news is that studies show that people are reading more, but it doesn’t mean that they are reading the same. Buying less in hardcover and paperback areas but have extremely rapid growth in ebooks. There is an increasing loyalty to ebooks and once people make transition to ebooks there is no going back. Most people will wait to buy the ebook if it is not available in hardcover. Overall consumers are increasing net spending on products. Huge gains in ereader customer satisfaction. Kindle still number one and the iPad is declining, while Nook and Nook Color are increasing. Consumers say their favorite device is a dedicated ereader. Market is bifurcated between tablets and dedicated readers. Don’t bet on one horse. Amazon and B&N channel sales increasing and iBooks is declining.
Student market: much more complex. 83% of students satisfied with textbook quality, but only 33% indicated that textbook prices are reasonable. 30% of faculty now recommend, not require, texts in core courses. Most of pirated material is not digital, but is scanned from hardbacks. 40% of students photocopy chapters from books of other students and faculty doesn’t discourage this. 20% of students pirate textbooks from other students. 75% of students prefer traditional books and only 21% of students had purchased an etextbook.t Haven’t reached the point where digital products are being sought by students. Only 58% of students reported that they were purchasing the traditional print version of the current print textbook. Current etextbooks only have a small consumer satisfaction rate. However, students seem to like premium textbook (enhanced) products. For eroding devices, most students using a laptop or desktop. Most students don’t use more than one device and don’t feel that the iPad can be their sole device. Only 10% of students have, or are planing to buy, and iPad. On-campus bookstore sales dropping and Amazon’s share is rising to make this up. Students are increasingly buying online.
Trade ebook sales have about 1296% growth and higher ed only a 49% growth in ebooks. In premium products students are voting with dollars and products are showing a large growth.
Making ebooks for the academic community is particularly helpful to education with the many interactive enhancements possible with EPUB 3. Through this ebook format, students have the benefit of learning from media other than the printed word, so it’s like having a little part of the Internet in their pockets with whatever mobile reading device they’re using. Surveys show higher education students prefer flexibility in where and how they read their eTextbooks. Buying textbooks by the chapter or a limited time license is an excellent way for them to save money and space, thereby discouraging indiscriminate photocopying. Through these distribution methods, publishers can get people to adopt and to adapt ebooks, weaning them from traditional reading to the new way of accessing content. Schools only have to make sure that the ebooks they are distributing work in all the devices used by their students. This is why it’s important for publishers to test their ebook products in as many devices as possible.
Eric Freese
Aptara, Inc.
http://www.aptaracorp.com