Ebook Trends: The Year of Living Digitally
Devices, Demographics and the Fate of Print
Ebooks and the devices needed to read them are more frequently acquired by younger, better educated and more affluent than average consumers. When the BISG study began in 2009, the ebook adopter “profile” had higher than average percentages of male, 30- to 44-year-old, employed college graduates with incomes between $50,000 and $75,000. Today, women far outnumber men. The other demographic “norms,” while still high, are less so, compared with other age, education, employment and income groups. For example, respondents over 55 and retirees now make up significantly higher percentages of ebook “Power Buyers” (those who acquire ebooks at least weekly) than they did in 2010. Younger consumers are still dominant, but the ebook adoption landscape is getting flatter.
- People:
- John Parsons
John Parsons (john@intuideas.com), former Editorial Director of The Seybold Report, is an independent writer, ghostwriter, and editor. He is the co-author of the interactive printed textbook, Introduction to Graphic Communication, on the art, science and business of print, which has been adopted by Ryerson, Arizona State, the University of Houston, and many other schools and vocational training centers. Custom editions of the book are under consideration by major printing companies and franchises for internal training purposes.