Study: E-Readers Must Be More Than Electronic Newspapers
Soon after the iPad was introduced, one of the earliest complaints was that readers don’t want apps and other accessories interfering with the words. Now comes a university study showing people need more than reading to fall in love with e-readers.
Indeed, the Univ. of Georgia study found younger consumers may prefer their phone to an e-reader. According to the research, young people view Amazon’s Kindle as “old” compared to smartphones with applications allowing them to do everything from listen to music to finding a restaurant, along with reading online.
At the other end of the spectrum, older readers said they missed the interaction they had with a physical newspaper, such as doing the daily crossword or reading the comics – features often missing from e-reader versions.
What both age groups agreed on was a lack of enthusiasm for the Kindle DX price: $489. Earlier this week Apple’s iPad was unveiled with a $499 price for a 16GB version.
A professor who conducted the research said the findings show e-readers need to be more than a different format for reading newspapers. “It should be seen as one of a constellation of services for the device including books, magazines, etc.,” Dean Krugman said in a statement.
In a hopeful sign that the iPad has an advantage in the e-reader market, the university study discovered color and a touch screen could sway readers to choose an e-reader. So far, Amazon’s Kindle is limited to a black-and-white screen and an array of buttons.
- Via Wall Street Journal and Univ. of Georgia
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
