A recent survey published by ChangeWave indicates that Amazon’s Kindle is rapidly losing market share to Apple’s iPad.
To be sure, Apple’s popular tablet vaulted from a respectable 16 percent share in August to a hefty 32 percent in November.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s share plummeted from a high of 62 percent to a new all-time low of 47 percent.
Unsurprisingly, the survey determined that iPad owners were more satisfied with their purchase than those consumers with just a plain old Kindle.
For example, 75 percent of respondents said they were “very satisfied” with the tablet device, compared to a paltry 54 percent for the Kindle.
As one would expect, Apple also maintains a decisive advantage in terms of potential buyers, with 42 percent of customers interested in purchasing an e-reader over the next 90 days opting for the iPad.
In contrast, only 33 percent are willing to consider Amazon’s Kindle.
Nevertheless, the demand for e-reader devices continues to accelerate, as 5 percent of total respondents confirm they are “very likely” to buy an e-reader in the next 90 days, and 10 percent state they are “somewhat likely” to purchase one within three months.
Of course, it should be noted that a number of journalists and analysts have disputed the accuracy of the above-mentioned survey, including Tim Conneally of BetaNews.
“Unfortunately, the entire [study] is based on an unsound premise, because it seeks to compare hardware e-readers with software e-readers,” writes Conneally.
“It compares the iPad with the Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony Reader, and ‘smart phones with eBook capability.’ [But] the three dedicated e-reader devices – Kindle, Nook, and Reader – cannot run third-party e-reader applications on them like the iPad and smartphones can.”
Conneally added that the survey utterly failed to ask iPad or smartphone users which e-reader software they were using to peruse their e-books.
“[So], it is entirely plausible that the iPad may be gaining popularity as a device that consumers use to read e-books, but they could be buying books in Kindle or Nook format and consuming them in their related iPad apps.
“In short, this shows not that the iPad is stealing market share from the Kindle, but [rather] that consumers who read e-books are buying e-readers, and consumers who read colorful and web-derived content are buying tablets.”
[Via BetaNews and AppleInsider]
