I’m currently writing a proposal for an ‘enhanced eBook’ for children. Or perhaps just an eBook; has there been collective agreement on when an eBook becomes more enhanced than usual? Anyway. I found some interesting statistics compiled by Christopher Maselli. Thanks Christopher, I didn’t have to go far to find out a lot:
Ebooks:
- Ebook sales grew 177% last year.
- 53% of those who buy ebook readers state that they now read more books than they did before.
- 2.6 Average number of books read by e-reader owners in a month.
- 1.9 Average number of books read by print-book readers in a month.
Amazon:
- Amazon sells 143 ebooks for every 100 hardcover books they sell
- The average Amazon customer buys 3.3x as many books after buying a Kindle than before they had one
The iPad:
- iPad sales are expected to be 15.6 million this year and 46 million next year.
- iPad users: 65% male, 63% under 35, 39% make more than $80k.
- Kindle users: 52% male, 47% under 35, 44% make more than $80k.
- 44% of people prefer Kindle on the iPad over the iBookstore.
The iPad statistics are particularly interesting at this point as we conceived this book with that device in mind- what else can offer web connectivity, apps, games, video etc etc. Actually, I hear the Kindle Fire can at a much lower price.
Geekdad in his Wired column articulated something that’s at the core of it for me- the independence of thought that these new tools could afford our children:
But, an eBook can go a ways toward helping children develop frameworks for exploration and help them learn the art of problem solving and information seeking. If books have traditionally nurtured a love of stories and words and knowledge, I want eBooks to empower my children to tell their own stories, to make up new words and definitions and to recognize and embrace knowledge in a way that is dynamic and creates a love of life.
Which is exactly what we want to embody in our eBook- playfulness, curiosity, exploration, an unwillingness to accept dogma (Ive just realised that Steve Jobs’ Stanford speech covers pretty much all of these)
samhoweynunn 