CRUNCHY NUGGETS: Hello and Happy New Year to you! I hope you’re well and wonderful. Did you see or hear anything crunchy and interesting over the holidays? I did…A woman in my Saturday pilates class mentioned that her daughter owned so many gadgets, so her Christmas was very low key, very simple. Among the gadgets mentioned her daughter already owning was an e-reader. Flash ahead to just a few days ago when my nine-year-old Son asks me: “What’s a Kindle?” Apparently, a handful of classmates got Kindles as gifts this holiday season. And with that, I wondered: just how prevalent are e-readers for kids? It seems to make sense as a lower cost alternative to an iPad. But is this a new “it” tech toy of sorts for today’s young ones? Here’s what I found:
iWant — According to Nielsen who surveyed kids ages 6 to 12 this past October/November, kids were most interested in iPads (44%), iPod Touches (30%), and iPhones (27%). Non-iPad Tablet Computers — which could arguably qualify a Kindle in this category (think: the new Kindle Fire) came in at 25%. And e-Readers were wished for by only 17%. Now…that’s kids talking, so why not aim high, right?! But what about the actual purchase…let’s go back a year and see what we can find…
Older Users — Again, according to Nielsen, as of August 2011, the majority of e-reader owners were 55+ (30%), followed by 45-54 (21%), 25-34 (18%). Now, this survey went as young as 13…so kids really weren’t captured in this research. And, it doesn’t take into consideration device sharing — which, as a parent, I can tell you is part of the what’s-yours-is-mine mentality of kids. So, what other nuggets can help answer my question? Ah…books!
Growth in Younger Readers — I had to step into that time-machine again and look to an article written in the New York Times in February of last year. Which reflected sales of e-books just after the holidays. Interestingly, the article notes: “In their infancy e-readers were adopted by an older generation that valued the devices for their convenience, portability and, in many cases, simply for their ability to enlarge text to a more legible size.” Which supports the older user demo. But the article also shares a stat from publisher St. Martin’s Press who found that in 2010 young-adult e-books made up about 6% of the total digital sales; and in early 2011, the number was up to 20%. Now that’s just young adults — teens, tweens. But the article did share a lot of anecdotal information of children’s increased usage and interest in e-readers. Here’s the URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/05/books/05ebooks.html
So…Did I answer my question? Do I think that e-readers are a must-have for kids? Statistically, no…I couldn’t find the nuggets to support my quest. But there is that fine line now between tablet and e-reader…and that user pass along phenom that won’t ever capture and answer my quest *sigh*. Oh well…it was a fun quest. And it’s good to be back! TASTY TREND: Tech Babies
