In a MobileRead survey asking when people started reading e-books, some 39 percent of the current 279 respondents said they were 40 or older. That’s great news for Isabelle Fetherston, me and others talking up E as the new large print.
MobileRead folks, like ours, are more into tech than is humanity at large. But then, e-book technology today is much more complicated than it will be in the next few years, at least if the industry can address the eBabel issue and the related DRM question. Oh, well. At least e-book tech is further along than in 1986 when one man now in his late 40s was reading off the Psion Organiser, shown here.
Will libraries be ready for the new E era? I still intend to do that essay advocating a mix of permanent checkouts and other business models that libraries could use in place of the current DRM-dominated approach.
On the negative side: Could the surprisingly high percentage of 40-plus people reflect less interest than we’d hope in reading—E or P—by the young? As it stands now, older readers are a major market for publishers despite so many New York houses’ fixation on the young.
Detail: The 40+ stat is the total of five age categories.
The MobileRead breakdown, so far…
60+: 14 respondents, 5.02 percent
55-59: 19, 6.81 percent
50-54: 20, 7.17 percent
45-49: 32, 11.47 percent
40-44: 24, 8.60 percent
35-39: 53, 19.00 percent
30-34: 45, 16.13 percent
25-29: 34, 12.19 percent
20-24: 27, 9.68 percent
15-19: 5, 1.79 percent
Less than 15: 6, 2.15 percent
