• June 27, 2001

Recent quantitative research conducted by BookBrowse.com found that 23% of adults say they are likely to read an e-book in the next year. 16% said that they had read an e-book at sometime, with the great majority reading on their computer (not on a handheld device).

However, when asked at what price point they would choose an e-book over the cheapest available paper edition, more than 45% said they would only buy the e-book if it was half the price or less. Almost 1/3rd said they would buy the paper edition even if the e-book was free.

Considerable price resistance is also apparent when respondents were asked how much they would be prepared to pay for a handheld device that they could read books on. 44% answered 'only if it was free', with only 14% prepared to pay over $100.