STAMFORD, CT — (Marketwired) — 04/18/13 — Simba Information, the market research firm specializing in publishing and media, has released the fifth edition of its Trade E-Book Publishing report series, which has closely followed the digital book market since 2009. While the fourth edition correctly predicted what is widely referred to as the -2012 slowdown- in e-book adoption, the data in Trade E-Book Publishing 2013 shows that the number of e-book users did climb in 2012 to pass 50 million adults, but how they use e-books, what devices are used, what extent they buy and how much money they spend on content has changed to make the industry a lot tougher to navigate.
“In the last edition, we noted the gap between e-book -users- and e-book -buyers- grew wider than expected, and that was the warning sign a lot of people ignored in 2011,” said Michael Norris, senior analyst of Simba Information-s Consumer Media & Technology division, commenting on the report. “Not only did the gap grow even wider in 2012, but the average amount of money spent by a given e-book buyer didn-t rise [between 2011 and 2012], which makes what a lot of people think was a simple -slowdown- in adoption a lot more complex.”
The book industry also saw, surprisingly enough, an increase in the percentage of adults who purchased a paperback title, but at this point it is not know if that is a sign things are materially getting better for print or if it is simply what Norris referred to as the -50 Shades of Gray factor- — referring to the runaway erotic trilogy by E.L. James that was a major hit in print and digital form.
The children-s and YA market continues to be rooted in print but both formats have shown strength in 2012: About 23% of all adults bought at least one children-s/YA print book in 2011 while just 4% purchased a children-s or YA e-book, a figure which reached about 25% of adults buying at least one children-s/YA print and about 5% buying at least one children-s/YA e-book. A “good number” of adults are buying children-s/YA e-books to read for themselves, said Norris, citing the popularity of series such as Twilight and The Hunger Games among adults.
For the fifth year in a row, Trade E-Book Publishing provides the results of its -device matrix- which shows the popularity of most major e-book reading devices — including Amazon-s Kindle, Barnes & Noble-s Nook, Apple-s iPad and more — and how they have trended over the years. Additional analysis showing where the recent Kindle Fire and Amazon-s legacy E-Ink readers stand in also provided.
The report also shows conclusively that not everyone who can access e-books chooses to do so: according to exclusive Simba data, about 63% of smartphone owners, 48% of iPad owners and 40% of non-iPad tablet owners do not use e-books.
“Any publisher who still believes that making their content available or accessible electronically is enough is kidding itself,” said Norris. “The e-book industry is much more nuanced than most people think and getting a person to value and engage with your content isn-t always going to be an easy sell.”
A two-year analysis of how much money e-book users spent on digital titles is included in this report as well as multi-year analysis of e-book pricing trends and what proportion of e-book users acquire digital books for free. The report also provides a full psychographic and demographic overviews, including an analysis of e-book users based on gender, age, household income, education level and more.
Additional information on the report can be found at .
Simba Information is widely recognized as the leading authority for market intelligence in the media and publishing industry. Simba-s extensive information network delivers top quality, independent perspective on the people, events and alliances shaping the media and information industry. Simba publishes newsletters and research reports that provide key decision-makers at more than 15,000 client companies around the globe with timely news, analysis, exclusive statistics and proprietary industry forecasts. For more information, please visit .
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