iPhones could become most popular e
Stephen King's latest novel is a phone book. Up to 50% of iPhone users read e-books on tiny screens, according to new research from e-book rental services Oyster Books and Scribd - a trend that suggests consumers might benefit from a larger iPhone.
'Roughly half of our reading activity happens on phones,' says Eric Stromberg, CEO of Oyster Books. And while Scribd says users prefer reading on iPads to iPhones , those with Android devices are almost as likely to read on a phone as a tablet.
E-book readers tend to spend the same amount of time on tablets and phones, says Jared Friedman, co-founder and chief technology officer of Scribd.
The average customer on both Scribd and Oyster reads for 45 minutes a day, however they don't necessarily read titles cover to cover. 'For every four books they open on Oyster, they only end up finishing one of them,' Stromberg says.
Why do people read books on their phones? It's easier and safer for readers to catch up on their latest book using their smartphone when they're stuck in the doctor's waiting room or sitting on the subway, says Mark Coker, founder of e-book distributor Smashwords.com. 'More reading is shifting from dedicated e-reading devices to multi-function tablets and smartphones,' he says. 'My iPhone is by my side 24 hours a day, whereas my Kindle is - well, I forget where it is right now.'
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Neither Scribd nor Oyster has managed to really become the Netflix of books - mostly because the selection tends not to include newer and popular releases. Scribd offers unlimited books for rent for $8.99, with 300,000 books from more than 900 publishers. Oyster charges $9.95 a month for unlimited reading, and offers more than 500,000 titles from over 1,600 publishers.
But the market in e-book rentals is gradually improving. The number of people who subscribe to Amazon's Kindle Lending Library has increased from 17% in November 2013 to 26% in March 2014, helped by increases in Amazon Prime subscriptions, according to Peter Hildick-Smith, president of market researcher Codex Group. Entitle offers two e-books a month for $9.99, including new releases and best sellers. Safari Books Online has over 30,000 technology e-books, which it provides on a subscription model.
E-book readers also tend to be younger and female, according to research by Pew Research Center's 'Internet Omnibus Survey' of over 1,000 Americans aged 18 and older. Among all adults surveyed in January 2014 who read a book in the last year, 28% read an e-book (versus 69% who said they read print books and 14% for audiobooks). However, almost half of readers under 30 years of age read an e-book in January 2014 compared with 31% in November 2012 and 25% in December 2011.
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