In a research conducted by Mediamark Research & Intelligence, it was found that more males than the females are using e-book readers in the United States. Why is it so? Why despite women being more into books and reading are not using electronic book reading devices? And why male members of society who read less than their female counterpart reads (or buys) more e-book readers?
The possible explanation to this could be their (male members) love for the gadgets or say everything that is electronic. And may be (here I am guessing), the men’s love for gadgets has put the other half of their life away from it. After all, it is the matter of attention: who is paying attention to what.
Research findings
- 56.3% of e-book are men, where as female constitutes the rest 43.7% of the readers.
- Adults aged between 35-54 are 20% more likely to buy an e-book readers.
- 87% of the e-book readers have annual household income of more than $100,000.
- 11% of the e-book reader are more likely to own their home in comparison to average US adult.
- 111% are more likely to have a graduate or post graduate degree than average American.
The study should also have concentrated on finding the following:
- How many e-book owners actually read books on the device?
- How many hours do they spend on reading anything on the reader?
- How does owning an e-book reader have affected their reading habit? Have they started to read more or got so intoxicated by the device that actual reading has gone down?
The result will then give the actual figure of e-book readership. The current study has just given a figure of how many people own an e-book reader.
Tags: Adults, Amp, Book Readers, Book Reading, E Book Reader, Electronic Book, Female Counterpart, Females, gadgets, Graduate Degree, Household Income, How Many People, Intelligence, Male Members, Mediamark Research, Paying Attention, Post Graduate, Readership, Reading Devices, Reading Habit, Research Findings, United States
30 Dec 08 The Touchscreen revolution has arrived!
Comfort of use is one of the major factors one would consider when buying a gadget or any appliance for that matter. This might also be the main motivation of why tech companies have started moving their devices’ input methods from the traditional keypad or keyboard to the touchscreen.
From a logical point of view, touchscreen devices are more intuitive. Instead of using several keypresses on your phone to navigate to a menu, you can simply touch an icon on the screen to accomplish the same task. In this arena, the iPhone must be the most popular and innovative device, prompting other cellphone manufacturers to follow suit and create their own “touch” phones. Before the iPhone came into the scene, most touchscreen devices made use of a stylus or similar tool to interact with the device. However, they were not as successful as the iPhone in their implementation. The touchscreen was more of a novelty than a tool that one can rely on when using the device, thus the need for a keypad or keyboard to still be attached to the device.
Then came the iPhone. The touchscreen on the iPhone was made the primary input tool. Everything you had do on the iPhone, you can do with the touchscreen. And it wasn’t just a normal touchscreen that was included in the phone. The iPhone also offered multi-touch input. Multi-touch allowed the user to use two or more fingers at the same time to touch the screen and provide a more intuitive way to interact with the phone. You can now zoom in or zoom out a picture with the use of your thumb and index finger with a pinching motion on the screen.
Microsoft also had it’s eye on touchscreen technology for a long time now. In 2007, Microsoft displayed a working version of their Microsoft Surface device which was designed initially to be used for kiosks found at hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. The Microsoft Surface looks like a small table that had an interactive touchscreen for a tabletop. The user can touch the screen, or even just put different objects like cellphones and digital cameras on top of the device to allow the user to gain access to the information on those devices or to transfer data into those devices. It can also detect a glass placed on on top of it, allowing the Surface device to display animation or even display a menu of wine choices. Credit cards can also be placed on top of the Surface device allowing one to pay for their bill without the need to call the waiter.
Touchscreen technology has also reached the gaming console world. With the release of the Nintendo DS, gamers were immersed in an all new gameplay style that was never before experienced in other devices of its kind. This allowed game programmers to design games with more innovation which would be impossible to create with traditional game input mainly in the form of the joystick and buttons.
And this is just the beginning. The number of touchscreen devices are only bound to get larger in the coming years. As demand for such devices have increased considerably this year, more and more companies have started to put forward their own offerings. While Apple still leads the pack in the touchscreen cellphone and media player markets via their iPhone and iTouch products, other cellphone companies are closely behind with their own offerings.
Cellphones you may want to consider when purchasing a touchscreen phone, are:
- Apple iPhone 3G
- Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
- Sony Ericsson Xperia X1
- Samsung Omnia SGH-i900
- HTC Touch HD
- LG KP500 Cookie
If you are looking for a touchscreen PC on the other hand, you may want to check out the HP TouchSmart. It features multi-touch similar to what the iPhone and Microsoft Surface has. And as demonstrated by Microsoft, it works beautifully well with their upcoming Windows 7 operating system which should replace Windows Vista in the near future.
Truly, the touchscreen revolution in gadgets and devices is nigh! Once the price of the devices come down to levels that are more affordable to the common person, it is not impossible that there will come a time that all devices will have an interactive touchscreen as a standard method for input.
Tags: Apple iPhone 3G, Cellphone Manufacturers, Cellphones, Finger Input, Fingers, Gadget, gadgets, HP TouchSmart, HTC Touch HD, Index Finger, Input Methods, Input Tool, Interactive Touchscreen, Intuitive Input, Intuitive Way, Iphone, Keyboard, Keypresses, Kiosks, LG KP500 Cookie, Logical Point, Long Time, Microsoft Surface, Motivation, Nintendo DS, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Point Of View, Samsung Omnia SGH-i900, Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, Thumb, Touch Input, Windows 7, Zoom
