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More than one million e-readers and more than half a million tablet devices were received as gifts over Christmas, according to research released today, with Amazon and Apple the leading suppliers of e-readers and tablets respectively.
According to the analysis one in every 40 adults in the UK received an e-reader as a Christmas present. The data, based on a YouGov survey of 2012 adults in the week after Christmas, indicated that 1.33 million e-readers were gifted over the festive period, 92% of which were Kindles, making Amazon’s e-reader the most popular choice this Christmas. The research suggests that just over 100,000 rival e-readers were sold.
The research showed the devices were more popular with women than men, with 61% of people receiving them being women. The results also showed an age-bias, with Amazon’s Kindle being twice as popular with the over-55 age group than the 18-24 age group. Londoners were least likely to receive Kindles, and the research said other e-reader brands were “relatively more successful in the capital”.
Tablet sales were also buoyant at Christmas. YouGov's modelling suggests that more than 640,000 tablets were gifted to adults, 72% of them Apple iPads with 60% of the Apple products being gifted to women. Non-Apple-branded tablets were relatively more popular with men.
Marek Vaygelt, head of Technology and Telecoms Consulting at YouGov, said: "Amazon has done a remarkable job of selling the benefits of e-readers and the upside for the publishing industry is that it appears e-reader owners, at least in the early days, buy more e-books than the printed books they purchased before acquiring an e- reader."
The survey was taken between 28th December 2011 and 3rd January 2012 with YouGov asking 2,012 adults in the UK what presents they had personally received or treated themselves to over the Christmas period.