My indispensible brother, David, sent me a study that he found online. The study focuses on reading comprehension and speed across different platforms; conventional book, PC, iPad and Kindle. The results were not surprising.
Of the 32 people studied, a majority of them felt more comfortable, read faster, and comprehending more when reading a conventional book. The iPad came in second, the Kindle a close third, and the PC dead last. I say this is not surprising as I would guess that a majority of the study participants grew up reading conventional books.
"This study is promising for the future of e-readers and tablet computers. We can expect higher-quality screens in the future, as indicated by the recent release of the iPhone 4 with a 326 dpi display. But even the current generation is almost as good as print in formal performance metrics — and actually scores slightly higher in user satisfaction."
A far more intriguing survey would be one that is performed in the exactly the same manner as this one in five years, then another five years, and so on. As people adopt eReaders at younger and younger ages, I feel confident in predicting that the results of the study would change over time. I think about my younger brother and about my two young sons. My dispensable brother John, is far more attuned to email than I as he was introduced to it at a younger age. My children will probably see conventional mail as nothing more than a relic used to send thank you letters to their grandparents. Then again, I better hurry out and buy my kids an iPad if I want to see this prediction come true. Right now, my oldest son's favorite book is a battered copy of Hop on Pop.
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