E-readers Outpace Tablets in U.S. Adoption

We all remember how Steve Jobs famously claimed that people just don’t read anymore, dismissing the chances of e-readers catching fire among consumers. Steve Jobs was mocking devices such as Kindle before his company decided to get serious about the e-book business. The tablet market has grown exponentially in the past few months. But e-readers do seem to have a lot of momentum behind them as well. According to a recent phone survey by Pew Internet Project, the e-reader market is growing at a faster rate than the tablet business. As the study suggests, the number of adults who own an e-reader such as NOOK or Kindle has doubled from 6% in November 2010 to 12% in May 2011. 2277 individuals participated in this study.

These results are not that surprising. Tablets are not as cheap as e-readers anyway. In these tough economic conditions, the tablet market will be affected more negatively. Considering that people can save a lot of money on their books by going with e-books, e-readers will continue to be in-demand for the foreseeable future.

The e-reader adoption rate could reach new levels as Amazon and B&N bring even cheaper devices to the market. We have heard many rumors about Amazon’s plans to price its next generation Kindle under $100. Some have suggested that e-readers could eventually be offered for free or close to it. Unlike what some analysts have suggested in the past, tablets are not exactly killing off e-readers at this point.