eReading is rising dramatically, according to report

By Stephen Fenech On Apr 13, 2013

eReading is on the rise and taking hold in the market with a report showing 21 per cent of Americans have read an e-book in the past 12 months.

And the figures prove how popular Kindles and other ereaders were as Christmas gifts.

In mid-December that figure from the PewResearchCentre in the US was just 17 per cent and increased to 21 per cent by mid-February when the report was completed.

The rise on these figures show a shift away from printed material to digital content as many respondents also read newspapers, comics and magazines on their ereaders, smartphones, tablets and computers.

People consuming ebooks also tend to read a lot more which is good news for authors and publishers.

A person using an ereader reads an average of 24 books a year while the traditional book reader gets through 15 on average in the same period.

Consumers who own ereaders admit they are reading more with four times as many people reading ebooks today than they were less than two years ago.

According to the report 42 per cent of all ebooks are read on a computer, 41 per cent on a dedicated ereader like a Kindle, 29 per cent on a smartphone and 23 per cent on a tablet.

An ereader offers the convenience of being able to carry literally thousands of books in its internal memory.

This is popular with travellers as they don’t have to decide which book to take with them in the case of printed books – they can take them all.

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