Technology research services firm Gartner, Inc., US, has released the findings of a survey that says the time people spend reading on a digital screen is now almost equal to that spent reading printed paper text. The huge majority of tablet and iPad users say they find screen reading either easier than reading printed text (52 percent) or about the same (42 percent). However, 47 percent of laptop users find screen reading harder than reading printed text, and 33 percent reported it was about the same, the report says.
In the fourth quarter of 2010, Gartner surveyed 1,569 consumers in six countries – the US, UK, China, Japan, Italy and India – about their subjective experiences of reading on screen versus reading printed paper text. The survey included a mixture of online, face-to-face and computer aided telephony interviews.
According to the Gartner survey, across the demographics, screen reading is now virtually at par with print consumption. Survey data show that younger age groups are happier to read on screen than older respondents, with the 40-54 years cohort least satisfied with their screen reading experience. In terms of gender, men typically reported screen reading easier than women, but both sexes said screen reading was generally the same or harder than reading printed text.
Gartner analysts said the shift from paper to screen-based consumption is not a straight substitution of one medium for another. There is no single paradigm for screen reading, because reading a short piece of text on a mobile phone screen is a different proposition from the reading experience with an e-reader.
The survey research indicated that around 40 percent of respondents had no experience of using e-readers, such the Amazon Kindle, Amazon Kindle DX and Barnes & Noble Nook, and this was even higher in India (75 percent), the UK (56 percent) and the US (57 percent). Urban Chinese respondents had the highest familiarity with e-readers and also had the highest number reporting that e-readers were easier to read. This reflects the relatively high income and education level of the sample in China.
For content providers, the interactive capabilities of screen readers should ultimately enable the delivery of a richer user experience, it is felt. For communications service providers, for products such as the Kindle and iPad that use wireless or Internet connections for content delivery, there is an opportunity for customer acquisition and retention through product subsidy and cross-selling/upselling of data plans.
The Gartner report, 'Survey Analysis: Consumer Digital Reading Preferences Reveal the Exaggerated Death of Paper' is available on the company website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1651116.
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