ReadWriteWeb reports on a study from mobile VOIP company Rebtel which polled immigrants on their tablet-buying habits. It finds that an average of 13% of immigrants own tablet-style devices, compared with a Pew study showing 4% of Americans own tablets and 5% own e-readers overall.
While their terminology is a little sloppy (they seem to consider the Kindle a “tablet” for purposes of the study), and the charts are a little tricky to interpret, the results are certainly interesting. Why would immigrants adopt mobile technology at a higher rate than native residents? I wonder if it holds true in other countries as well. Is it reciprocal? Will people from Country A always have a higher adoption rate while living in Country B than while living at home, and vice versa?
Looking at it from an e-book viewpoint, the results are a little ironic. Due to territorial restrictions in e-publishing, those immigrants who own tablets might have a harder time getting e-books from their native countries than the people who actually live in them. This presents yet another reason why the publishing industry should hurry up and get those straightened out.
When I visited Europe a few years ago, I was amazed at how many mobile phones I saw. And I realized my family members who live in the UK, also all had mobile phones. This was before it became fashionable for North Americans to give up their landlines. I asked a few people why this might be and found out that in a lot of countries it takes forever and is expensive to get land lines. So, everyone gets a cell phone. And, suddenly everyone is sold on the mobile existence.
I guess having access to cheap and easily obtainable land based communication has slowed our move to mobility.
Legal immigrants (the kind who’d admit to being immigrants to a pollster they don’t know) tend to be richer and better educated than the general population. Countries prefer immigrants that would be net tax payers. This would naturally skew the results.
As well as the above comments I would also think an immigrant has less stuff to organise and might well like that and so not want to drag piles of books around.
Also some immigrants will be in global business and spend a significant time travelling so again ebooks are easier to transport.
Interesting blanket comments on what it is to be an immigrant…
We can say this: Some immigrants, upon arriving in America, like to take advantage of the things they can get that did not have in their home country. Tablets would certainly qualify as such a device, not available (or few available) in many other countries.
But without further data, it’s practically pointless to guess at why. Would’ve been nice if the original survey had asked…