Quote:
Originally Posted by jbcohen
I take a train back and forth from work every day and I have kept a one month running total of the ebook readers that I can see each week and thus far in a one month period from December 14th until January 14th I have found three kindles besides my on Aluratek Libra Pro. And that is out of approximatively 1,000 riders ever day.
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Similar here (Germany). I see maybe 3 Kindles per month, maybe a single Sony. Some iPad here and there. Way more smartphones of course.
My gutfeeling: Ratio of paperbooks : eBooks = 50 : 1.
If I'd even include newspapers, the share of eBooks certainly would be below 1%.
And even worse: In the rare occasions I see iPads for example, they're usually used for movies or games. Rarely ever for reading.
When talking to friends and colleagues, who "refuse" eBooks, I mainly hear 3 reasons:
a.) "I want to collect my books or DVDs. I want to see them on the shelf".
b.) "Never again proprietary formats. I've got burned before and won't repeat that mistake".
c.) "I don't see any advantage. It costs the same and I even have to worry about formats".
My personal guess: In the US, commuting and traveling long distances is way more common than in Germany for example. So maybe customers in the US are way more interested in "travel companions".
Personally, I love having my gadgets while "on the road". Having hundreds of books with me. Being able to check restaurants and hotels on my tablets. But looking around, I don't see an "explosion of eBooks".