iPhone offers improved eBook reading
Yesterday’s introduction of the iPhone 5 by Apple sparked the usual frenzy among tech bloggers. There were fewer ripples in the e-book sector, however, despite all the headlines earlier this week regarding Apple’s e-discounting battle with Amazon.
An exception to this generally absent coverage was Digital Book World, which reported that with “its larger display and improved resolution, the iPhone 5 seems primed to be an improved reading device over its predecessor, the iPhone4S.” The latest version of the iPhone features a four-inch screen, a half inch larger than the 4S, and improved battery life.
But DBW also noted that Apple “did not give any details on reading time and the hours of talk time, browsing time, video-watching time and music-listening time the new battery can support seem to be about the same as the old phone.”
Reprinted from Shelf Awareness Thursday, September 13, 2012
Another interesting article reprinted from: Digital Book World | Jeremy Greenfield
According to a new study, 45% of all U.S. adults now own a smartphone, about double the proportion that own dedicated e-readers or tablet computers, currently making smartphones the most common mobile e-reading devices.
The proportion of young adults (18 to 29 years old) who own a smartphone is even higher, with two-thirds owning one, according to the new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Almost the same proportion of U.S. adults aged 30 to 49 year own a smartphone (59%).
With fewer e-book buyers gravitating toward dedicated e-readers as their reading device of choice, tablets, smartphones and other e-reading venues will become more important for publishers to pay attention to. According to two other Pew studies, in the earlier part of this year, about one fifth of U.S. adults owned an e-reader and about the same proportion owned a tablet computer.
Those numbers are set to change in a big way. Worldwide, about 102 million tablets are set to be shipped to consumers in 2012 while that number is 11 million for e-readers.
Just because a consumer owns a tablet computer or smartphone, however, doesn’t mean they will read books on it.
According to an April Pew study:
– 42% of e-book readers consume their books on a computer
– 41% of e-book readers use an e-book reader like original Kindles or Nooks
– 29% of e-book readers read books on their cell phones
– 23% of e-book readers read books on a tablet computer
Publishers are already thinking about new ways their content can and should appear on tablets. Perhaps they should be taking a second look at smartphones, too.