"The whole issue about e-books isn't about whether customers can access content, but whether they will engage with content," Norris said. "It's a tougher problem and we hope this report will go a long way to help solve it by understanding e-book users and e-book buyers."
"Trade E-book Publishing 2012" includes analysis on how much money e-book users spend on digital titles and a full psychographic analysis to profile e-book user habits like never before. Since the proprietary data is collected regularly, Simba has added specific devices to its nationally representative survey as they came to market. Devices profiled in this edition include Barnes & Noble's Nook line, smartphones (including the iPhone), Amazon's Kindle devices, Apple's iPad and more. The report also analyzes devices based on specifications, such as E-Ink screens versus the increasingly common color touchscreens. Projections on which devices are expected to lead though 2014 -- and which are expected to fall -- are provided in the report.