How popular are ereaders? Not very I would say.

[hermes]

This opinion is based on the very limited sample of people who ride public transit. And in my Canadian city, these patrons are not all, or even mostly, welfare class. I'd guess a mix of mostly working class and lower to true middle class plus a few rich folks.

I see people reading books all the time. It's not as if most passengers are reading (in fact most are listening to music privately or playing games on phones), but those people who are reading are typically reading books. I would estimate for every 50 persons reading a book I see one using an ereader.

How about where you are?

[Terisa de morgan]

In my city (Madrid), I would estimate for every 5 persons reading a book I see one using an ereader.

[Sweetpea]

Most people I see are playing with their phones... Or shouting in it...

[Fbone]

I've yet to see a dedicated ereader in public. Most people are talking, texting or listening to music.

[odiakkoh]

I can't read on the bus. I was always late because I was too into the book to realize I was supposed to get off 10 minutes ago lol. Not to mention, where I lived most bus riders rode the bus because they couldn't afford a car or afford to get their license back, ereaders aren't really on the top 10 things they should spend money on.

[Frida Fantastic]

I'm in Vancouver, Canada. I'm usually the only person on the bus with an e-reader. I have seen people with ipads and other e-readers though, but only once in a while. So maybe 1 in every 30 people I see reading a book. There tends to be more e-readers and ipads with the white-collar work crowd and the university crowd, so it depends on when you take the bus.

[lestatar]

Ereaders, the dedicated ones, are extremely rare in Hong Kong. Impossible to find even a Sony device, though some computer malls do have a few Chinese brands [e.g. Hanvon] and I found 1 shop that had a Kindle.

I was told by shopkeepers that most folks in HK who like to read usually do so on their iPhones, iPads, Tabs, whatever.

Usually, the only folks sporting dedicated ereader devices in HK are western ex-pats like me.

[G J Lau]

I think e-readers continue to be more popular in the U.S. than anywhere else. Interestingly enough, us older folks seem to have taken more of a shine to e-readers than younger people. Probably because the text size is easily adjustable and because that demographic is still the main readers of book in general.

I also agree with the lestatar above that e-readers don't tell the whole story. Cell phones and pad devices have to be factored in on the assumption that most folks would prefer not to have redundant electronic devices.

[miguel1626]

I live in Brazil, and I've never seen a dedicated reader in the wild. I'm sure cost is a factor, but so is the fact that not many people read a lot (therefore making the purchase of an ereader superfluous).

I've a couple of friends with Kindles, but even they admit not using them a lot.

[astrangerhere]

I live in Chapel Hill, NC, which is the oldest college town in the United States. For every 5 people I see with a book, I'd guess 2 of them are using an e-reader. New Nooks sold out in both our Barnes and Noble locations in less than a week. I've seen Kindles, Sony's and Nooks regularly and the stray Kobo here or there that was bought on the cheap when our Borders went out of business.

[mldavis2]

Originally Posted by hermes

This opinion is based on the very limited sample of people who ride public transit.

As many people cannot read on a moving vehicle, and since there is so much collateral interference from other people, scenery and general commotion, I would expect the numbers to be very low and not at all representative of overall eReader population. Another factor is that, as a relatively new eReader, I still have a large stack of unread pBooks which I still wish to read and have not moved much of my reading to eBooks yet. No one would see me with an eReader on public transit.

[ficbot]

My daily commute is too short to read on. I have less than ten minutes on the bus. So usually, I am playing with my phone It doesn't mean I don't have a reader and use it often.

Fwiw I ride the Toronto transit system and I have seen a couple dozen ebook readers---mostly Sony, the stray Kindle or Kobo. I think usage of ebook readers is growing fast.

[Wetdogeared]

I won't quote you ficbot so that you'll have a chance to change that typo.

[DiapDealer]

Where I live, they're so popular it's causing problems. There's gangs of Kindles harassing old-ladies trying to cross the street, and just the other day, I had to chase a group of young Nooks off my lawn. They said it was just a cigarette but I'm pretty sure they were smoking pot. Don't get me started on the Sonys....... punks. Someone's going to need to do something before they take over completely. *shakes fist*

[jbcohen]

What conclusions can we draw from the results that we see above? Clearly electronic readers are more popular in university towns.