“Do you read e-books on your mobile device?” PalmAddicts asked readers. Here are the results:
- No—-never. I prefer reading the traditional way (45 percent)
- Yes—often (41 percent)
- Other—I tend not to read books (0 percent).
- No, but I read e-books on a nonPDA device (0 percent).
I’d have worded the questions differently, but the poll is still worth paying attention to—since 632 people participated. Notice? Dedicated machines like the Sony Reader and the eBookwise devices don’t even show up as tiny blips on PA’s radar. This may well change, of course, as e-book-specific technology improves.
Another interesting point is that the poll didn’t even bother to mention desktops specifically. Some people must read books off desktops. Even so, and even allowing for the PDA-centric orientation of PalmAddicts here and in regard to other questions, I wonder if this might be yet one explanation of why PDF is the most popular format at Manybooks.net. Could it be, as has been speculated before, that many folks are just making PDF printouts rather than reading off their screens? Remember, PDF is essentially a pretty PDA-hostile format but good for printing.
Still another point is that 42 percent is hardly a complete disgrace but is far less than the percentage of PDA owners who should be reading e-books. This suggests that the e-book industry needs, through cross-promo and otherwise, to market more aggressively to PDA owners. New PDAs should come with e-reading programs and sample books.
I share your amazement in the continued popularity of the PDF format for eBooks. I must say that it isn’t completely hostile to PDAs (I’ve mentioned my success using PDF on my Palm), but that doesn’t make it especially friendly, either.
For those of us who like to think of the PDA as a great entry device to eReading, the lack of any dedicated device showing up in the poll is also a bit of a disappointment. Still, I think that ultimately (10 years from now) the dedicated reader will be seen as an intriguing detour rather than the winning strategy. Whether the winning strategy is a screened device or some form of heads-up-display for sunglasses remains to be seen.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
Rob, why not point to your PDF/PDA-tip links or at least your mention of your experiences? Thanks ahead of time for the info! I’ve tried PDF reading programs on various PDAs and have yet to be happy, but I’m always on the lookout for solutions. David
More than 50% of the e-books downloaded on Feedbooks are A4 PDFs too.
I guess that some people DO read on their computer directly, or print these books.