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Baby Boomers primed for e-reader options
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The new nook e-reader from Barnes & Noble could find a big market in Baby Boomers.
Baby Boomers -- given their numbers, their buying power and their continued interest in reading -- are perfectly positioned as a prime target for the new e-readers that are coming on the market.
Will they respond?
Anecdotal evidence suggests that yes they will.
The evidence comes primarily from Amazon. While it doesn't release sales figures for its e-reader -- the Kindle, introduced in November 2007 and upgraded with a new version in February 2009 -- comments on its web site suggest a strong following among Baby Boomer users.
And if Baby Boomers like the Kindle, there's no reason they wouldn't also like the newest kid on the block -- the nook from Barnes & Noble.
Many early Kindle users in an Amazon discussion group raved about portability, readability and the ergonomic ease of not lugging around heavy books.
With the release of the Kindle2, a lot of the discussion has been a pro and con of K1 vs. K2.
There are other kids on the block.
Sony has had an e-reader -- the Sony Reader -- that is out there but not causing much of a media stir.
Then there's Barnes & Noble, which caused quite a stir in the reading and publishing community with the introduction this month of the nook.
While all the e-readers employ electronic ink technology, the nook features not only access to the Barnes & Noble array of books, it also features full color capabilities, something the Kindles don't.
The nooks while available online from Barnes & Noble for preordering now, won't be physically in the stores until later this month.
It's interesting to note that the Sony Reader is currently available for purchase at Barnes & Noble stores.
Another new kid -- which will also be sold at Barnes & Noble -- is the QUE from Plastic Logic. Its scheduled release is Jan. 7, 2010 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The big gorilla in the room that's yet to make a public move about an e-reader is Apple.
There's been lots of speculation about Apple's interest in the e-reader market, especially with Apple CEO Steve Job's comment not too long ago that Americans don't read.
“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said at the 2008 MacWorld. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”
Yet, the popularity of the Kindle and the attraction of other, newer e-readers must have Apple engineers thinking in a different direction from their boss.
Apple watchers believe an e-reader from the creator of the iPod and iPhone is imminent.
Baby Boomers will attracted to these devices based on:
- Affordability of the e-reader itself,
- Availability of books, magazines and newspapers and their affordability,
- Ease of portability;
- Durability, because it can be as portable as it wants but needs to stand up to the rigors of being hauled around;
- Readability in terms of screen resolution, whether the type size can be adjusted, and how the screen reacts to different lighting conditions;
- Other bells and whistles -- can it view photos, PDFs, text documents or spreadsheets?
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Ease of use: It's not that Baby Boomers are technically challenged but they don't want something that will require hours with a manual or the assistance of a resident techie. It needs to be plug and play ... or in this case ... plug and read.
