Quote:
Originally Posted by faithbw
I'm surprised there's so much skepticism about these results. Anecdotally, most people I see still use paper books. All my friends and family prefer paper books (that is if they read). My husband only reads paper books despite having access to my e-reader and my tablet. I rarely see dedicated e-readers in the wild. Honestly, the people on this site (self included) are likely an enthusiastic minority when it comes to e-books. I read ebooks when I travel but I can count on my hands the number of people I see on planes and train that are reading ebooks.
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The "skepticism" isn't over the numbers but over the way the survey was made and its (apparent) intended use.
The survey as presented is a meaningless factoid that says nothing new or meaningful.
First of all, it is a survey of the general population: 25-30% of which doesn't read books at all--if you wanted it to mean something, you would limit it to actual book readers.
Second, it doesn't weigh the "votes" by reading habits: people who only read on travel, or rarely, have no use for ebook readers.
Third, as pointed out, the factoids are presented as if to deprecate ebook usage, when the numbers actually indicate significant growth in ebook popularity. Which tells us very little because they only asked about preferences, not actions.
A proper survey would begin by asking if the respondent reads books for recreation. Then it would ask how many books read in a typical year, how many read in the last year, and how many were ebook editions. Then it would repeat for actual *purchases*. For ebook users it would ask *how* the ebooks are read--phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, or dedicated reader--and it would end by asking for gender, broad age group (at least 5 ranges), broad income range (ditto), and take note of location if possible.
And, a meaningful survey would sample different locations and different times in clusters.
Then, it *might* have meaning if the questions were properly (as in clearly, unambiguously, and neutrally) phrased *and* if the sample proves to be big enough to be representative of the target population.
Polling is not for amateurs.
Doing it right is hard work.