At BookNet Canada we are interested in tracking not only what people are buying, but also how people are reading. Today, we are releasing the last of a series of three consumer studies, The Canadian Book Consumer 2013: Digital Sales and Trends. This report looks at digital reading habits, device preference, and purchasing behaviour of digital products.
So, how are people reading digitally? We thought the answer would overwhelmingly be that they are reading on tablets but to our surprise, when we categorize the results by device type, we find that dedicated ebook readers, as in 2012, remain the preferred device. It is important to note that this does not mean that purchasing of tablets isn’t on the rise: we didn’t ask what devices people were buying, but what devices they were using to read ebooks on.
Tablet use for e-reading saw a decrease from 34% in the first quarter of 2013 to 23% in the fourth quarter. Mobile use increased steadily through 2013 up to 11% at the end of the year. Although mobile devices still rank in last place out of the four types of e-reading devices surveyed, this steady growth over 2013 marks a significant increase. At the beginning of the year, respondents who reported reading on their mobile phone were predominantly from the youngest demographic (18–29), but by the end of the year, there was a more even distribution among age groups.
Primary Device Used for Reading Ebooks
For more information on Canadian trends with regards to ebook sales, ebook pricing, and reading on digital devices, purchase the full report. (Discounts apply when you purchase more than one report, or all three in the series.) You can also check out our infographic about Digital Sales and Trends.
