I always find the quarterly Wattpad metrics report to be fascinating. It is one of the only regular surveys of ereading habits. Here is an excerpt from the latest report. You can find the full report here.
Ivan Yuen, CTO and co-founder of Wattpad provides insight into the results: “We are continuously impressed with the variety of devices readers use to consume ebooks. Six to twelve months ago, people only thought about the major ereader offerings and the iPhone. But in the last quarter we’ve seen incredible growth in the usage of iPads and Android tablets, as well as netbooks and other mobile devices. I expect this trend to continue. EBooks that are only available on one device or in one format will be missing out on many fast growing segments of the market.”
Some Key Findings Include:
– Smartphones continues to be the most popular mobile device to read ebooks in the US, with Apple iPhones, iPads and iPods as well as Android devices being the key drivers.
– Use of Apple and Android devices in eBook consumption continues to expand with Wattpad reporting a 25% increase in consumption , where as BlackBerry devices experienced a –9% drop in usage.
– Apple’s iPad has been quickly adopted for eBooks consumption since its introduction in April 2010. In Q2, the iPad accounted for 5% of eBook consumption among Apple’s core mobile products; iPod/iPhone/iPad.
– The growth in smartphone usage continues to come from North America and Europe, where as Java devices continue account for the majority of growth in Asia.
– 38% of the total number of eBooks consumed on Wattpad are read by English literate readers.
– US continues to be the leader in English eBook consumption (70%), followed by UK (14%), Australia (8%) and Canada (7%).
These numbers are based on a billion minutes that readers and writers spent on Wattpad during the second quarter.
People who use wattpad, which I had never heard of before and apparently specializes in cell phone ebooks, use wattpad to read ebooks on cell phones. Fascinating.. Guess it’s a slow news day.
Call me skeptical. Real readers who read books that have hundreds of pages just can’t prefer reading on their phones. A couple of pages while they’re waiting in line somewhere – sure. The entire book, no way.
Who wants to squint at a tiny glaring screen for hours? A screen you can’t see in the sun either.
Even though I have both a Kindle and a smart phone, I haven’t even installed Kindle for Android or PC because I’m just not ever going to read books on those devices, it’s too hard on my eyes. I can barely stand to catch up on my email or the news when I’m away from home.
It’s probably a generational thing. The nintendo DS generation may have no problem reading a novel or novella on a cell phone.
I just find data produced by a company to validate their business model to be suspect .
And over 2 thousand years ago, “real readers” read from scrolls or strips of wood or papyrus sewn together. And I’m sure the scroll readers thought the wood strip readers were crazy.
That’s an anecdotal, subjective opinion about the suitability of one word/thought delivery mechanism over another. Just like yours.
And what’s a “real” reader anyway? “Real” people want to know.