Readers

[exaltedwombat]

I made several journeys on London's public transport system - buses tubes and trains - yesterday and noted fellow-passengers reading eBooks.

Kindle: 11
Anything else: 0

That's all. Nothing to discuss, really. Just thought it might be of interest. Move it somewhere else if you like, but this is where the serious eBook makers seem to hang out.

[mbovenka]

I haven't counted them, but travelling daily on public transport here in the Netherlands I mainly see Sonys. I see the occasional Kobo or Kindle.

I have never seen another Kindle DX in the two years I used one, and I haven't seen another Kobo Aura HD yet either.

But dedicated ereaders are pretty rare anyway. Everybody and his dog is staring at tablets and (large) smartphones.

I haven't done a survey in a while, but the situation in Vancouver and Halifax (Canada) seems to be much more mixed. Kobo seems to be the most common, but I've seen Sony as well. I suspect it's because the library system only lends out ePubs and because the biggest bookstore up here (Chapters) used to own a major stake in Kobo.

[exaltedwombat]

Same here in London UK with public libraries - epub only. It wasn't a freak day - I've noted this Kindle domination before. It surprises me too.

Plenty of people with smartphones of course, but they seemed to be messaging or playing games rather than reading ebooks. Apart from my Nexus 7, all the tablets I saw were Kindles.

[tubemonkey]

In the Seattle area, it's Kindle by a large margin. Not surprising, since Amazon is headquartered here.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I mainly see Kobo's, but it's Canada and that makes sense. With an improved Kindle Canada storefront that may change, but library lending being nerfed in Canada on Kindle makes Kindle a non-starter for most people I know. I love the Kindle I won, but if I had paid for it, I probably would have a Kobo too.

[exaltedwombat]

Local pride in a Seattle business? (How well does Apple sell? :-) Or does Amazon offer special deals to its neighbours?

I wouldn't want a one-program tablet anyway (unless I particularly needed the long battery life of an eReader). But that's a whole other issue.

[HomeInMyShoes]

For me, it would be for easy library lending that I would choose Kobo or Sony over Kindle in Canada. I like the selection, prices and sales at Amazon, but I haven't done a lot of in-depth searching for actual selection of things I've been reading.

The number of Kobo's is probably based on physical store availability. You don't see Kindle anywhere physically and Amazon.ca is overpriced for almost every product that isn't a book so indirect traffic is probably close to nill.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by exaltedwombat

Local pride in a Seattle business? (How well does Apple sell? :-) Or does Amazon offer special deals to its neighbours?

Local pride? Doubt it. More like advertising; no special deals. Another plus is the large ebook collections libraries in this area have; including Kindle ebooks.

That said, Apple sells very well here. With ereaders, I mostly see Kindles. But with tablets, I see quite a mix (Kindle, iPad, Galaxy, Nook, etc).

[llcj]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

For me, it would be for easy library lending that I would choose Kobo or Sony over Kindle in Canada. I like the selection, prices and sales at Amazon, but I haven't done a lot of in-depth searching for actual selection of things I've been reading.

The number of Kobo's is probably based on physical store availability. You don't see Kindle anywhere physically and Amazon.ca is overpriced for almost every product that isn't a book so indirect traffic is probably close to nill.

Here, in Kingston, Ontario, both Staples and The Source (Radio Shack) carry Kindles in-store.

[DiapDealer]

Might be aliens reading intravenously right beside me for all I'd notice.

Originally Posted by llcj

Here, in Kingston, Ontario, both Staples and The Source (Radio Shack) carry Kindles in-store.

Shoppers Drug Mart also carries Kindles and one of the mobile phone providers had some sort of offer a couple of months back, so it's not as though Kindles are hard to come by in Canada.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by llcj

Here, in Kingston, Ontario, both Staples and The Source (Radio Shack) carry Kindles in-store.

I stand corrected. No direct Overdrive support for library lending would still make me think twice about actually paying money for a Kindle as a Canadian.

[elemenoP]

On the NYC subway, it's a mix of everything. Whenever I fly I'm struck by how many people I see reading on iPads (as opposed to playing games or watching movies). I see more iPads than Kindles on the plane, but more Kindles than iPads on the subway.

eP

[Sefiriot]

Over here it's mostly smartphones (Android more than iOS) and tablets, with the occasional laptop: most are gaming, texting, listening to music or doing something else however; the actual readers are still mostly toting pbooks!

And they're mostly women... many of whom are reading locally published books in our national language with their hackneyed plots. Sigh. Nothing against the ladies, or my national language, but the books that come from local publishers in the national language aren't exactly good literature, if you take my meaning.

Dedicated e-reader hardware isn't easily come by in Malaysia, alas since Amazon and B&N seem to dislike Asian countries for shipping and such.