70 percent of Kindle owners over 40?

Amazon's marketing to a more youthful audience, but the older set are the early adopters.

(Credit: Amazon)

Back in March, I did a post titled, "What's the average age of Kindle owners?" I cited a thread in Amazon.com's forums discussing Kindle owners' ages.

Well, I have a little follow-up on the whole issue. Apparently, someone went ahead and tabulated 700 of the responses in that Amazon thread (that represents about 75 percent of all the posts) and broke out the numbers. Here they are:

• 0 - 19: 5%
• 20 - 29: 10%
• 30 - 39: 15%
• 40 - 49: 19.5%
• 50 - 59: 23%
• 60 - 69: 19.5%
• 70 - 79: 6%
• 80+: 2%

We can't call this the most scientific poll ever taken, but it's probably a good indicator of the Kindle's age demographic. If you add it all up, over half the owners are over 50 and 70 percent are over 40.

Like I said in my previous post, if you look at the Amazon thread, a lot of senior folks bought the Kindle--and now the Kindle 2--partially because the digital reader is easier to handle than regular books for arthritis sufferers. It also helps that you can increase the font size, if you have trouble viewing small print in books.

Amazon is in a bit of battle with publishers who tend to think that e-book sales are cannibalizing their print books sales. However, as the blog Marginal Revolution points out, comments from seniors saying they're able to read more now that they own Kindles helps "Amazon's pseudo-statistical case that e-book purchases are incremental/additive, rather than cannibalistic of their print sales."

I agree. Any Kindle owners, young, old, or young at heart, feel the same way?

Update: Kindle Culture has an even more complete breakdown of the posts on that Amazon thread.

(Source: Publishers Lunch Deluxe via Marginal Revolution)

[jeffsparkman]

I wonder how the distribution is affected by which demographic segments are populated by people who can afford to drop over $350 on a Kindle. :)

[xZero2007x]

Well they're certainly not going to sell the Kindle much cheaper or offer it for free.
If you really read a lot/wanted the convenience of the Kindle, then you'd pay their asking price knowing it's fair.
If they could get textbook publishers on board, then trade off of $350 in comparison to the textbook portion of the average college student's bill per semester makes it seem worth it.
I personally know quite a few college students who are hard working and put aside the savings for the Kindle. Heck, some of them put it down as a school expense.
For the record, I'm not a Kindle owner, nor do I have a great enough interest to get one lol. I simply prefer hard copies, but wouldn't mind paying for an ebook copy if it appealed to me in the first place.

[madiq]

I'll take it a step further. Not only does it have to do with people with the disposable income to drop $350 on a piece of electronics, but it also reflects individuals who have a larger sample size with which to gauge their annual consumption of books, while weighing factors like long-term cost and storage. If you read two books a month at $25 a pop, then you realize that your $600 a year habit creates $6000 worth of physical merchandise over a decade that needs to be preserved and accounted for. That necessitates buying additional bookshelves, giving the books away, or putting them in boxes. Older people are more likely to think of electronics as investments rather than status symbols, and the Kindle might be uniquely positioned to capitalize on that reality.

[JoyfulSparrow]

I'll start off by stating, I am under 40. This is exactly why I bought my Kindle. I am a re-reader so I like to keep the books I enjoy but I didn't want to allocate more space in my house for storage of books. I had pretty much put the brakes on buying books becuase of this and was trying to use the library and swap books with friends but found that I didn't have the books I wanted to read at hand when I wanted to read them. Library books are also clunky since they get hardbound copies of many books. I am usually reading a few different books at a time, I can't carry library books in my purse. I stay with family for a month each year and got tired of lugging a month's worth of reading material home in my (single) suitcase.

I gott my Kindle for convenience and to reduce clutter. I have loved the convenience at "at my fingertips" availability of my music since I digitized my music library. I saw no reason why switching to a Kindle should not be equally satisfying. I found the price less shocking when I compared it to the cost of my iPod. I did get the Kindle for my birthday so it was a special occasion large purchase. I do still read physical books sometimes, I'm not re-buying books I already own (except perhaps some classics like Jane Austen & Jane Eyre), paperbacks are ideal for floating in the pool, there is no way I'd do that with my Kindle!

When I showed my Kindle to a friend who is a student, she went nuts! She said if her textbooks were available on Kindle she would get one just to save her back from lugging all those heavy books around.

I haven't yet figured out how to share content with my 10 year old. It used to be if I read a book he was interrested in, I would pass it on to one of HIS two overflowing bookshelves when I was finished reading. I am not prepared to let him operate my Kindle. So far I have handled this by reading aloud to him, but I won't want to do that with every book.

[KindleCulture]

Here's more complete information using all 1,400 respondents with statistics and graphs that was also posted yesterday: http://tinyurl.com/dxfvhf

[rwood91304]

When I buy a Kindle (hoping for an 8' screen) it will be to supplement my reading, not replace real books. I hate mass market paperbacks, and will use the Kindle for works only available in that format, or not available at all.

[kfischer100p]

8 feet might be too much to hope for...

[SNOOP_ROCA]

I think he meant 8" (8 INCHES)

[xZero2007x]

Lol fail with the screen size.

[arkcnet]

I love my Kindle. I am an avid reader and I have been very pleased with it. I am not sure why people think the Kindle is so expensive. I don't think it's inexpensive but to tout it as unaffordable is strange to me. If you are an avid reader and say you buy 30 hard cover books in a year at 25 bucks a pop, the Kindle pays for itself. If a lot of avid book buyers would do the math, you will actually save money in the long run.

I thought I would miss a physical book. Guess what? I don't. At all. I actually think I read faster with the Kindle and versus a physical book, the Kindle is much easier to hold and use.

No doubt the Kindle needs some improvements but I must say Amazon is off to a great start.

[john94857]

Maybe that explains why I don't have a Kindle...

Now, while I don't have a Kindle but checked one out from a friend. The screen is very neat and unlike most standard back-lit LCDs. If you get a chance, check it out. It's VERY cool.

On the note about Amazon, I recently came across an interesting table (thanks to PC World) that details the discounts on Amazon.

It is at http://www.uberi.com

Maybe someone will find it useful too. It's certainly a bit amusing.

[uncletanoose]

first of all. people find the disposable income for *the* thing they want. the first dvd player was about $600, and there were very few dvd's even available to play on the things. and weirdly, no one questions playstation, ps2, wii, etc., even though the devices are 'expensive', and the games themselves -- h0ly cr@p! you can pay $30-$50 for a single game. dvd players sold; game systems sell. and to fairly young, unestablished people -- not just to tech-chasing law-firm partners.
so let's think a bit about what 'over 40' can mean. it *can* mean that we were in our 20's, 30's or 40's & up -- in the 80's!

those of us on the 'young' end of that who didn't just go screaming through college straight into jobs with typewriters and file cabinets entered the world of automation staring at amber screens showing us the contents of disk drives run on 286, then 386, then 486, then pentium etc. processors. we learned the DOS commands. remember that MS-DOS thingy? that's right around when bill gates was getting really rich.

and the 60-69's are the slice of humanity who *automated their workplaces*. in 1986, at age 25, i was spending hours and hours a week sitting in front of a computer, doing work on it. learning pathnames and DOS commands. many of which still work, but are not documented. i've had an active e-mail account, uninterrupted, since 1988. oh, and -- i'm a giiiiiiirl! with humanities degree!

today's youth do not 'know computers'. they understand user-interface conventions. half the time they can't find that file they just downloaded. but they're content to sit back and let their less-automated parents think they're geniuses.

even despite the obviousness of this, in the very air we breathe there's some idea that 'over 40' kindle users have finally found something to attract them to technology, and look! it's that old-fashioned pastime of *reading*. silly. i'm 47, and i bought a laptop before i bought my first car. and i spent the same amount of money on both things.

this idea that the young understand computers and the older people don't, is just really not that dead-on; and it will become less so, not moreso, with the passing of time. think about it. that meme was started in the late 80's. when *my* cohort was 'the young who understand computers'. our 'old folks' (my grandparents' generation) from that time are, in sadly great measure, no longer with us. the guy who was our sysadmin back then is still in the workforce. and if i'm past 40, well, he's got to be *decently* past 60. so now, years later, the 'older generation' -- are the people who *invented the technology*.

[xZero2007x]

Someone's proud they got their first path commands framed on their wall.
Most of the youths you're referring to who can't 'find that file they just downloaded' usually don't proclaim they know what they're doing. In fact, a lot of those youths admit their ignorance.
Then there's the next segment of youths who think they know what they're doing but are really putting up a facade with their googling skills and constant nagging on various forums and blogs on why something they did didn't work out.
And then there are those who are actually worth something and can think outside of the box. These are the ones carrying tech into the future. Relative to the previous generation, this segment's probably a larger group than your group was. While we're on that note, this generation's use of tech's a lot more involved than was your generation's. While navigating with no GUIs may have been the mundane task for you back then, was majority of your college classmates able to comprehend the idea like how millions of the non-tech-savy youths can with their downloading and syncing their ipods for today?

Yes, I just divided up your stereotype into different segments. If your arthritis is going to make it hard to properly rant here, you can stop and have your apple sauce and take your afternoon nap, old timer :)

[bachaney]

I agree with the earlier poster who said people find disposable income for things they really want. I got my Kindle 1 at 25, and a Kindle 2 in March at 27. But reading is one of my main forms of entertainment, and I was one of those people that bough multiple hardcover books a month, so it made sense for me. But what I tradeoff is TV--we don't have cable TV at our house (which shocks people), which means I have roughly $150 a month in disposable income to spend on other things.

I think the bigger question is, are more young people not buying Kindles because they don't really read? I read significantly more than most of my peers--again which makes the kindle "worth it" for me. In general, I think many members of my generation don't have the attention span for reading.

[xZero2007x]

Sadly, it really does feel literature has lost its appeal to our generation. There are some who still keep up with it, but damn it, I blame the social constructs of our time!

[gregorytga]

$150? Cable is helluva lot more expensive in your neck of the woods. $60 of $100 cable bill is the internet connection. The other $40 is TV. Before you get excited about the money you're saving on the internet, I pay extra for the faster tier service.

[zextron]

"young people not buying Kindles because they don't really read?"
Yes.

[pentest]

It has little value to students and professionals. That is why.

[jhlundin]

...shows you who the readers are... J

[ddanckaert]

I have a Kindle, my wife, has a Kindle, we gave our hand-me-down Kindles to my mother-in-law and my 7-year old daughter. We're almost 40, and heavy readers. We read Amazon books on our iPhones and Kindles.

I don't want to pay room and board for hoards of paper books. If ever there was a good way to preserve the environment, it's getting your books electronically.

As for the younger set not buying Kindles--I don't see them reading that much. They're off watching YouTube and Hulu, Twittering their 140 char treatises on their enriched lives...etc...

[icemannj]

I agree...as a professor, my students will not read for pleasure; they are looking at viral videos and listening to music; not bad/good in itself, but what it is. I do also see an effect on how they act in face-to-face settings as well, quality in public speaking is down I'd say over the past ten years. I think the money is there for Kindles if they wanted to; they spend the $ on other electronics; they just don't want to go that way...

[uncletanoose]

agreed w/ all who say it's more about who really *reads*, than about technology. totally.

the e-ink reader is the 'killer app' for reading -- much as golf clubs are the 'killer app' for playing golf. and. where else will you find shelving for 1500 books for less than $400? have your books & not have to box & move them; store your books & not have to buy more furniture.

killer. app.

[pentest]

Sucky. App.

You can't sell or lend out the books.

[cmalumphy]

The Kindle would easily change its demographic to 70% under 40 just be adding a full fledged MP3 player. And it would boost sales of at Amazon's music store too.

[BlueMan33]

Interesting how people mention the fact that they don't want to buy and hold books for ever, it does take space and you need to move it around... in my case I tend to compare the ebooks to the mp3 that I purchase a lot. Since I've got my Kindle my consumption of books increased. I considered myself a heavy reader before (about 1 book a week in commute), now it's even more. However, like for MP3, I still buy in paper form the books that I really really really want to keep/display at my home.
I do buy several MP3 albums a month too, and end up buying CD for only a few of them, the meaningful ones.
Come to think of it, I also do the same with movies. In my family we only rent movies (grocery store and occasional video on demand streaming). We only buy DVD for those special movies we want to possess and keep around.
I'm below 40, so is my wife and she has a Kindle too :)

[pentest]

You can't consume books, nor can you sell or give away your crappy digital copy when you are done.

[JoyfulSparrow]

I seldom desire to re-sell or give away my books. I am a re-reader, I like to keep them, I just don't want to store them. Weather or not the Kindle is convenient depends on HOW you read. We don't all have the same reading habits.

Books that I did not intend to re-read did get offered to friends, but (since I am usually paying less for e-books) I think the recipients of my cast-offs are more likely than I am, to see lack of hand-me-downs as a drawback.

I do like that I am not consuming paper with my Kindle... when I look into my mailbox and pull out a big pile of advetising circulars which are INTENDED to be disposable.... since I HAVE a Kindle I like to feel like at least perhaps I'm helping to offset some of that junk-mail!

[tallymaam]

As a member of the 70% "geezer group" I agree with all of the above. I too remember slogging through learning DOS back in the day, on the first desktop computer our mainframe-based MIS director allowed in the building. I killed two Commodore 64 computers word processing my husband's dissertation, for those who remember such obsolete technology. An avid reader, I managed to raise two kids who wouldn't crack a book if I paid them. And with my home bulging at the seams with books collected over the decades, I welcome my first Kindle(2) as a tool that can perform several valuable tasks simultaneously.

I can carry as much of my collection around as I wish, in a smaller, lighter format than my ever-present "security book" without which I never leave home--'cause you never know when you'll have some time to kill and really NEED a good read. I can quit adding to my clutter of hard-copy, and whittle down the stash as finances and availability permit. I can enjoy instant gratification as new reads become available, and test the waters for free as I please. In other words, I can do well AND do good, for myself, my home environment as well as the larger environment we all depend on, and the economy, all with one device. A device that will also permit me to increase font size when my progressive lenses reach their limits for tired eyes.

Is this a wonder-gadget or what? Now if it DID have MP3, with perhaps the "World Peace Option", Amazon, MS and Apple could start duking it out for total world domination. In the meantime, when the next Katrina looms, the first thing I'll grab as I head out the door will be my Kindle.

One thing I've noticed about book availability is that new and very old materials are pretty readily available; it's the 10-50 year old stuff that's still mostly in no man's land. So let me encourage all Kindle owners to hound Amazon and the assorted publishers on that score. USE the one-click icon that now appears in every book listing on Amazon that is not Kindle-available to put in your request. BE the squeaky wheel for the ultimate good of the entire Kindle-using order. Your fellow geezer-readers are counting on you!

[piratenegro]

Chick in the picture is hot.

*fap*fap*fap*

[CarFreak8394]

I have kind of a stupid question for Kindle owners. If there is a book that you own, how do you get that on the Kindle? Do you have to re-purchase the book onto the Kindle or is there a way to prove that you bought the book? I'm thinking of buying one of these, and I was just wondering. Thanks in advance.

[xZero2007x]

For now, you have to make a separate purchase for your ebook on your Kindle. So you could be making two purchases for one product, hence the question of whether or not the Kindle would really be cannibalizing hard copy book sales.
Perhaps in the future, publishers will offer the ebook purchase at a discount if you've already purchased a hard copy, or maybe even include it in the hard copy purchase (much like how digital copies are coming with hard copy music/video purchases).

[xZero2007x]

If I were a Kindle owner, I'd in most cases purchase both the hard copy and the ebook copy at the same time. I personally like having a hard copy, but the convenience of being able to carry multiple articles of reading with you on the go with a slim portable like the Kindle's definitely worth the ebook cost.
If I were to make my spending more efficient, I'd probably ask myself whether or not the reading warrants a hard copy purchase.
Age: 20
Readership: Modestly moderate

[Fletch7777]

I fall into the 70% and have bought more books since the purchased of the kindle 2 I read books faster as I can carry the kindle more places and I dno't wait for my friends to finish a book so I can borrow thier copy. I can't lend a copy only recommend a book to a friend. I think that the puplishing companies profit from me owning a kindle it is just too easy to aquire a book when you are in the mood to read.

[adam_hartung]

Will Kindle be a savior for newspapers? Maybe so. Kindle might be the product to finally get newspapers to realize they have to go digital. Read more at http://www.ThePhoenixPrinciple.com

[JoyfulSparrow]

It just might. I do not get my local newspaper. I only want to read it once in a blue moon and I was overrun with all that PAPER that I was wasting when I had a subscription. Not even from the green standpoint I'll admit I'm more about convenience... it was the CLUTTER... but now that I can get it on my Kindle - I subscribe. In fact, I noticed that I actually READ the newspaper when I go stay with my Dad in the summer. It seems like HIS paper (the one I grew up reading) has more of the type of articles I find interresting. So guess what. I live in TX and subscribe to The Orange County Regsiter (California.) So here is at least one Kindle User who has increased newspaper comsumption.

[productvibe]

With textbooks available the average age is sure to go down as college students adopt. Amazon keeps innovating, gotta luv it. Soon enough college students will no longer get gouged on their textbook purchases. For more info on the Kindle see: http://www.productvibe.com/kindle-2-e-book-reader.html