Interesting - The Kindle Really DOES Have A Market

[BlooInBloo]

Old people.

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/04/old-people-love-kindle.html

"We extracted about 75 percent of the responses on age (representing about 700 responses, taking equally from the earliest and most recent postings, which show very similar age distributions). Per John Makinson's quip at an LBF panel, over half of reporting Kindle owners are 50 or older, and 70 percent are 40 or older. Here is the full age bracket distribution:

0 - 19: 5%
20 - 29: 10%
30 - 39: 15%
40 - 49: 19.5%
50 - 59: 23%
60 - 69: 19.5%
70 - 79: 6%
80+: 2%"

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. I would think one attraction it has for the older people is adjustable font size,

and the lighting of the thing that makes it so easy to read.

Plus it's really, really light.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. I am quite happy with mine

I rarely buy books, though I have several periodicals on subscription. I manually upload open stuff and things I translate with Mobi.

[stray cat]

3. It is great once your eyesight gets too bad to comfortably read paperbacks

I love mine at the old age of 43.

[salvorhardin]

4. You might want to check your ageism

Just because you're 40 or older doesn't mean you're "old".

[BlooInBloo]

11. ...

:cry:

[stray cat]

13. Age 20-70 seems to be the market actually - although I also don't think 40 or 20 is old

[BlooInBloo]

27. Age 20-70???

That's like.... everybody. With a card at least.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[X_Digger]

5. LOVE LOVE LOVE my kindle

Haven't purchased a paper book other than a magazine in almost a year.

[handmade34]

6. I suspect it has something to do

with the amount of reading each group does. yah think?

[stray cat]

9. That was also one of my thoughts - reading has gone out of style in favor of tv and video games

you have to enjoy reading to buy a kindle.

[blogslut]

7. Mind you, the Kindle is overpriced and charges too much for content

However, E-paper readers have advantages. For example, a student could download textbooks to a reader, thus saving them from the strain of lugging around 20 extra pounds of dead tree pulp. My kid has CP and she suffers a lot of pain due to weighty textbooks.

[BlooInBloo]

12. Single use, don't control the content, bulky too.

[stray cat]

14. like an IPOD is single use or a TV or a stereo - but you have to like music to buy an IPOD

and you have to like books to buy an e-reader.

[BlooInBloo]

18. And they can "update" the book on you without your consent or even knowledge.

[alfredo]

21. I think Apple is going to enter the market with a device that

will have more capabilities.

[X_Digger]

16. DO control the content..

Kindle DRM has been cracked for a while.

[blogslut]

20. Perhaps

But I am talking about e-readers in general. The Kindle isn't the only one and eventually, the price as well as the DRM bullshit will be worked out in the marketplace. As for the bulk, one e-reader as opposed to several heavy books is better.

[surrealAmerican]

30. I don't know when we'll see textbooks go digital.

I thought it was a great idea for the last 20 years. The technology is certainly up to the task, but the textbook publishers haven't wanted it.

[blogslut]

32. Of course they don't want it

They can't bilk buyers for nearly as much money as they can with hard-copy books.

[AllentownJake]

8. My mother loves hers

She's 62.

I'm 30 and still like going into Barnes and Nobles or Borders pursuing the shelves of books and still love the feel of turning pages.

:shrug:

[stray cat]

10. Actually the use is lowest for those under 20 and those over 70 - so market is age 20-70

sounds like a pretty wide market actually. Of course if you don't like to read or are illiterate it probably won't be much fun.

[Mike 03]

15. I'm intrigued by the device, but I can't get over my book fetish. I love to hold books, make

marks on them, circle interesting words, hi-light them, buy several copies of the first editions if I think they are worth collecting, and make them mine.

As a writer, it's also a depressing thought that books might one day only be in E-form. I'm not against e books and have had books published in that form, but to me the real golden egg is producing a three dimensional book.

[handmade34]

17. I love my Kindle, I love my books

I believe they can co-exist and will come to respect each other

[CrispyQ]

52. That made me smile!

;)

[BlooInBloo]

19. I don't go for the phenomenalist "there's just something magic about paper books" thing...

I just have no interest in the kindle specifically.

[Mike 03]

22. For certain, I know most human beings have no interest in books. The point is,

I'm interested in the percentage of readers, period, who prefer hard copy to ebooks. That's all.

That's the pertinent point and bottom line, because this is deep down a corporate discussion about money, but it will have repercussions for writers, obviously.

[handmade34]

28. when my husband died he left me a library of about 5000 books

I hated to but have since cut that down to a few hundred stored while I am working on the road. I worked for a bit testing for NAEP (NCLB) and one of the questions we asked the kids was how many books they have in their home. I was aghast, dumbfounded, incredulous to learn that very few people have more than a handful of books at home if any.

[Lars39]

29. I'm at about 1800 or so right now.

I've made it my mission to be the crazy aunt that buys kids books for their birthdays and holidays. I see too many parents now that don't have the money for books OR the time to take their kids to the library. It's sad.

[handmade34]

31. when I was young and poor and had kids

we really benefited from the RIF program. I read thousands of books to my kids and now am bombarding my grand daughter with books...

[Lars39]

33. Makes a huge difference in a kid's life, present and future.

:toast:

[OffWithTheirHeads]

37. Most of my life has been spent in occupations that allow me

to spend time in other peoples homes. I have found four categories of readers.

The first and rarest is a home with one or more bookshelves stuffed with books of all types and interests. These people are invariably progressive.

The second are homes with at least one bookshelf, stuffed with books but they are all computer tech manuals (I live in Silly-cone valley so this is to be expected). It's hard to tell where these people are politically and I suspect that they just have no real interest in politics. Interestingly, these people inevitably have a plethora of cook books. I'm not sure what that's all about as their kitchens don't ever look like they get much use, in fact, the last house I worked in that fit this catagory, I asked the owner if I could have a few snips of Rosemary from his garden for some bread I planned to make and he didn't even know he had Rosemary in his garden.

The third is homes with no books at all. Oh well, someone has to be interested in American Idol I guess.

And the last and best. The homes that have only one book, proudly displayed in some very conspicuous place with the author being Rush Limpballs, Annthrax Colter or their ilk. This is ALWAYS accompanied by the obligatory photo of the Bush-monster.

[shimmergal]

43. Interesting observations!

When I was in college--many years ago--I did a fair amount of babysitting. One of the perks was getting to look at the family's books & magazines. As this was a university town & I babysat for several professor's families, I got to see a good sampling. But even the non-academic people seemed to have at least the one bookshelf of assorted topics.

You know who the one exception was? It was a prof. and "expert" who'd served in the cabinet of a Republican president. Not one book was to be seen; and no magazines either. Still haven't figurd that one out!

[CrispyQ]

56. There was a study a few years ago

that had a startling stat that in many homes, the only book is a bible. :wow:

You know how some people have a special place in their house for the bible? When I was growing up, that special place held a dictionary. Now I have a dictionary by my chair, my bed & my desk & a few stashed elsewhere! And I always keep old dictionarys. It's fun to see how language has evolved.

Welcome to DU, handmade34! :hi:

[Happyhippychick]

23. As a clutterphobe and environmentalist I am looking forward to purchasing my Kindle next month.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

24. I can't afford a Kindle, but I have a Sony Ebook, and I love it. I'm 25 and I use it for my

textbooks.

[Retrograde]

25. adjustable fonts, can read to you, holds a lot

I think Amazon's charging about 50% too much for new books, considering there's almost no distribution cost and I'm sure the profits aren't being passed to the authors, but there are a lot of public domain works compatible with the Kindle format. Mr. Retrograde and I are catching up on the classics we should have read long ago, courtesy of Project Gutenberg: I'm on a Mark Twain kick right now.

The best part is that you can load it up with with dozens of books for a trip, and it fits in my purse, so I can have a large choice of reading material when I travel.

[BlooInBloo]

26. I love project gutenberg. Especially that I can read those on ANY device that's handy at the moment.

On the bus, can use my phone. At work, work computer. At home or coffee shop, laptop or desktop.

Portability = good.

[jmowreader]

34. The real market is one they're not going after yet...

Mechanics.

A mechanic who specialized in one brand of car would have a whole bookshelf full of service manuals. A mechanic who worked on, say, "Japanese cars" (any kind, so long as it has a Japanese nameplate) would need a library of manuals. Mechanics with their service manuals on Kindle would be able to put the whole library in their toolboxes. Same deal with any other kind of tech--appliance repair technicians would definitely be a huge market, because those techs make house calls.

[BlooInBloo]

35. I could see the utility in that niche. Having all the teardown books at hand would be cool.

[X_Digger]

36. True, but..

You would need a search feature that worked across titles. It's not there on the Kindle yet.

[jmowreader]

47. It's a computer, correct? That can be added

I'm not sure why most techs would need it though. If you were a Mazda mechanic you'd need a Mazda3 manual, a Mazda6 manual, an RX8 manual, a Miata/MX5 manual...if you're fixing a Miata you don't need to look in the RX8 manual.

The mechanics at my company would need cross-title search...the service manuals for one of these trucks are broken down into functions because if they weren't the book would be three feet thick. Cars are a different story, and because there are so many more cars that's where they'd start.

[BlooInBloo]

54. They differ year by year, among other things.

[jmowreader]

59. Cars are made in year groups, or "generations"

The 1986 Accord I used to have was a "third generation" car. Any Accord 1986 to 1992 could be fixed out of its manual. OTOH, you wouldn't need a third generation manual to fix a 1995.

[BlooInBloo]

60. Chilton disagrees with you, and it's pure quibbling in any case.

[jmowreader]

66. Dude, PLEASE tell me you don't use a Chilton!

The pecking order is:

factory manual
Haynes manual
no manual
Chilton manual

Manuals on Kindle could be done as "delta manuals"==a baseline manual at the start of a year group, and add-on manuals detailing year-to-year changes. In that case you would need cross-volume search.

[IphengeniaBlumgarten]

49. The kindle does search across titles

It indexes all books that it contains. It will also search on the web, at least the wikipedia and maybe other places.

It would be nice if it could do a boolean search with AND and OR.

Its drawback for car manuals and some textbooks is that it does not do so well with diagrams or illustrations. Needs a bigger screen at the minimum.

[X_Digger]

65. I'm a kindle gen1 user (less features). n/t

[Retrograde]

50. and travel guides

up-to-date guidebooks - several of them - all on a light hand-held device, so you can compare notes and look up information while you're there. Price the content so it's available for a month or so to bring down costs, and you've got a winner: it's more convenient than carrying 5 or 6 hardcopy guides around.

Any area where the content is more important than the format (I like your manuals example) would be suited to Kindle. I'd like to see magazines like the Economist and Science make content available this way:I want the information, don't necessarily want to keep the hard copies around, don't usually need to access last year's issues but can pull them from the website when I do.

I still manage to go through 2 or so real books a week, though, and expect that to continue. It's the difference between reading for pleasure and wanting the data.

[NuttyFluffers]

55. also Chefs and cookbooks. recipe lists galore.

actually a lot of industries could benefit from quickly accessed indices and manuals. i could imagine a lot of older lawyers and judges really enjoying this, especially if they haven't truly embraced the age of the laptop.

[JitterbugPerfume]

38. I'm 68 and

you will get real printed books out of my cold dead hands

[yasmina27]

39. I do understand

the addictive smell and feel of a book.

Having said that, when I stopped in Borders earlier this week to get a book for my daughter, I looked around, inhaled that wonderful smell, and looked for titles that I would look for on my Kindle.

Our house is filled with books, and our love of reading has transferred to our daughters. They love my Kindle, but it's mine. When they are old enough to pay for one themselves, they can get one. Until then, my philosophy continues - I will always be happy to spend money on books they want. They won't get that $50 shirt from Aeropostale or the $200 pair of athletic shoes, but books are non-negotiable - they get them, whatever the theme or subject.

Reading is what matters to us, not the method.

[handmade34]

40. very well said!

[yasmina27]

63. Thank you! n/t

[Joe the Revelator]

41. I'm 27 and I LOVE the kindle

Its one of the greatest things I've bought in the last 10 years.

[TCJ70]

42. I have one. It makes me feel like I'm on Star Trek or something. n/t

[Solly Mack]

44. I love the smell of books.

I enjoy stroking the binding and caressing the cover.

The feel of the pages next to my fingers.

I got a thing for books.

Don't judge me.


hehehehehehe

[depakid]

45. I get exactly what you're saying- and (if you haven't already been) there's a pilgrimage for you

http://www.powells.com/info/citytour.html

[Solly Mack]

46. Thank you!!!

:D

[cwydro]

48. Yep.

Me too.

If I could afford it though, I might try a Kindle for traveling.

[Solly Mack]

53. I've toyed with the idea...getting old, eyes getting worse

[cwydro]

61. Nothing like a new (or even used)

book in my hands though.

[Solly Mack]

62. I agree. Wouldn't be the same thrill at all.

[polichick]

51. Got mine today & LOVE it! I read a lot of books, and will still get many...

...from our local indie bookstore and the library ~ but I'll use the kindle for books when traveling, and for publications like The Nation and Financial Times. Haven't purchased many magazines/newspapers in a long time because of the paper waste, so this will be great!

[Honeycombe8]

57. You think 50 is old? Bwaaahahahahahaha! Tweet me when you're 50.

We'll see what you think then.

[KittyWampus]

58. I would save for a Kindle but it doesn't do the following things-

1. Scroll
2. Allow changing background color

[yasmina27]

64. For those concerned about the cost of the Kindle

I debated long and hard - over a year after it's original release - before buying one. Why? The cost.

Since I bought mine in Feb. (K2), I have bought every title I would have bought anyway, for significant savings over the cost of buying the hard copy, whether paper or hard back. In addition, Amazon offers a lot of free or low-cost (under $1.00) books, I have more than 70 titles currently on my Kindle, plus periodicals. While I haven't totalled the savings, I have no doubt that I have more than made up the cost of the Kindle already. There have been only one or two titles that I wanted that wasn't available on Kindle that I bought, then at least one was released on Kindle a week later! :(

Another feature I especially like is that you can download a sample of a book, to see if it interests you. If you don't like it, just delete the sample. And you have as long as you like. No deadline. Except for periodicals. You get a 14 day trial, then they start to charge you.