The Online Publishers Association (OPA) released the results of a smartphone survey recently (title: A Portrait of Today’s Smartphone User [click link for PDF download]), and assuming you have the patience to read between the lines, you’ll find some fairly interesting trend predictors. For instance, the following comes directly from an OPA press release announcing the study:

Smartphone users are cross-platform consumers: Smartphone users have strong cross-platform tendencies, with 84% identifying themselves as two-screen multitaskers (TV + mobile phone/tablet) and 64% identifying themselves as three-screen multitaskers (TV + PC + mobile phone/tablet).

Smartphone is the preferred media device for many: 54% of multiple mobile device owners prefer using their smartphone for at least one of a range of activities over PC/laptops and tablets.

Large smartphone app market: 96% of smartphone content consumers downloaded apps in the past year averaging 36 apps; 14% of all smartphone apps downloaded by those reporting are paid.

Smartphone users pay for content: 24% of smartphone users report that they have purchased content for viewing on their smartphones, with 22% of smartphone content buyers having purchased video, 21% entertainment content, 21% books and 19% weather content.

Android leads iOS: Android device penetration (46%) continues to lead iOS penetration (35%), with both platforms growing in share compared to last year; Blackberry and all other platform penetration share (16% and 11%, respectively) declined rapidly compared to last year (25% and 14%,respectively, in 2011).

As for what this all means for the e-reading community and those companies that service it, I certainly can’t say for sure. But one question this survey brought to mind for me has to do with the relevance and popularity—or lack thereof, as the case may be—of smartphone e-reading apps. That seems to be a subject we don’t discuss too terribly often as a community, and I’d love to get some input from our readers as to why that may be.

As for myself: Ever since I switched from an old-school BlackBerry Curve to an HTC smartphone running Android’s Gingerbread OS, I’ve been telling anyone who will listen how incredibly cool the Google Play Books app is. (It’s curved page-turning effect gets me every time!) And yet the truth is that I almost never use it; If I’m reading an e-book, I’m almost certainly reading it on my Kindle.

So … how about it, readers? How many of you are actually reading books on your smartphones on a regular basis? Is smartphone e-book-reading more prominent among a younger demographic, maybe? Is it a slowly-growing trend? Or is it not much of a trend at all? Please share your comments; this is a topic I think many of us are genuinely curious about.

To download a PDF copy of the aforementioned OPA smartphone survey, click here.

 

 

 

2 COMMENTS

  1. I read on my iPhone 4 (with the built in application or with the Kindle app) when I’m not home (in the bus, at work, etc.).

    My iPad 2 is my favorite device at home (because I read almost exclusively in my bed and we don’t have a Nook with Glowlight in France).

    I still use my Kindle if I need to (on a plane or on hollydays for example).

  2. I started reading e-books on a Palm Tungsten, and later on my iPod Touch. These days a majority of my reading is on my Kindle Touch, or my iPad (for Baen and other non-Kindle books). The larger screen is important, especially as I get older. I still use the iPod Touch for references – I’m an RN, and having a 30-odd volume medical library in my pocket is extremely useful.

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