MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - New Study Shows Ereader Ownership Growing Faster than Tablet Ownership

vxf · 06-29-2011, 09:53 PM

I get home after a fun 14-hour workday, pour myself a glass of Jameson, put on some jazz or some old swing singer, sit on my lounge chair on the balcony, puff on my Don Tomas and read. Well, I guess that is, technically speaking, multitasking....

Yet, I completely forgot my main reason for posting... how can I put it??? Well, let's call it 'skepticism'. I have given the numbers only a cursory look, but I just think there HAS to be something wrong here. I find it extremely hard to believe 12% of the adult US population has an ebook reader. That percentage is way, way too high. And almost a quarter of people who make above 75k? Even harder to swallow.

I am extremely skeptical of all polls and similar... you know what they say.... '90% of statistical results are made up'...

OK, well, I got myself curious now. Will dig into those numbers and methodology a bit.

EDIT:

As reported above, the sample is about 2800 people. That doesn't sound bad. I wonder if that is the number of responses or of contacts. They claim a margin of 2% - which makes sense, if those are actual responses.

Yet, something makes me wonder. Is there a huge response rate bias, when investigating something like this? As in - most people are just going to slam the phone when asked whether they own an ebook reader. But ebook reader owners are often enthusiastic, and often want to talk about it - these forums are a testament to that. If ebook reader owners are more likely to answer, then the findings would bias upwards the percentage of people owning ebook readers. Sure, there must be ways to correct for that - but not with a single sample of less than 3k.

I know, that is only a possibility, I am grasping at straws. But I just can't believe 12%.

06-29-2011, 09:53 PM	#14
vxf Guru Posts: 944 Karma: 1490348 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Norman, OK Device: Sony PRS 350, 900, 950; Kindles (ALL of them!); Kobo Aura One	I get home after a fun 14-hour workday, pour myself a glass of Jameson, put on some jazz or some old swing singer, sit on my lounge chair on the balcony, puff on my Don Tomas and read. Well, I guess that is, technically speaking, multitasking.... Yet, I completely forgot my main reason for posting... how can I put it??? Well, let's call it 'skepticism'. I have given the numbers only a cursory look, but I just think there HAS to be something wrong here. I find it extremely hard to believe 12% of the adult US population has an ebook reader. That percentage is way, way too high. And almost a quarter of people who make above 75k? Even harder to swallow. I am extremely skeptical of all polls and similar... you know what they say.... '90% of statistical results are made up'... OK, well, I got myself curious now. Will dig into those numbers and methodology a bit. EDIT: As reported above, the sample is about 2800 people. That doesn't sound bad. I wonder if that is the number of responses or of contacts. They claim a margin of 2% - which makes sense, if those are actual responses. Yet, something makes me wonder. Is there a huge response rate bias, when investigating something like this? As in - most people are just going to slam the phone when asked whether they own an ebook reader. But ebook reader owners are often enthusiastic, and often want to talk about it - these forums are a testament to that. If ebook reader owners are more likely to answer, then the findings would bias upwards the percentage of people owning ebook readers. Sure, there must be ways to correct for that - but not with a single sample of less than 3k. I know, that is only a possibility, I am grasping at straws. But I just can't believe 12%. Last edited by vxf; 06-30-2011 at 12:20 AM.