Apple, Amazon and Barnes & Noble see tablet and e-reader sales double Monday, 23rd January 2012

From December 2011 and January 2012, the proportion of Americans who own either tablet computer such as the iPad or an e-reader like the Kindle or the Nook nearly doubled, rising from 10 per cent to 19 per cent, according to the latest figures from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

“In the time we have been doing surveys about the adoption and use of digital technology, we have never seen growth quite like this,” says the project’s director, Lee Rainie. “These findings have major implications for every media company, especially book publishers, everyone in a knowledge business, and key community institutions like libraries.”

Although the growth in reading devices remained flat during the middle months of the year, a rise in the run up to Christmas suggested many potential buyers postpones their purchases until December.

Among adults in the United States with college degrees and above-average incomes, the figures are even higher. About 30 per cent of college graduates own a tablet and the same proportion own e-readers. Tablet ownership is especially high among those with income in excess of USD 75,000: some 36 per cent of adults in that group have one.

Demographics like that will come in handy to publishers who are trying to justify charging higher ad rates for their digital editions than for print.

Related Stories

• Amazon moves Boxing Day sales to Christmas Day (Monday, 17th December 2012)
• Amazon’s first quarterly loss in more than five years (Friday, 26th October 2012)
• Apple doubles Amazon order with 10m iPad minis (Tuesday, 9th October 2012)

Posted in Electricals, Technology Tagged apple, amazon, barnes & noble, e-reader, kindle, tablet, pew internet & american life project