Informal poll suggests nearly 70% of Kindle owners are over 40
By Donald Melanson 
posted May 1st 2009 3:51AM
posted May 1st 2009 3:51AM
There's already been some anecdotal evidence that the Kindle appeals to a slightly older set than your average newfangled gadget, and a new poll culled from responses on the Amazon forums is now shedding a bit more, if still not entirely scientific light on the matter. According to the Kindle Culture blog, the single largest group of Kindle users (broken down by decade) is folks in their 50s, with those in their 40s and 60s coming in second and third -- all of which adds up to nearly 50% of users being over 50, and close to 70% being over 40. Broken down into some broader demographics, that translates to adults 35-54 accounting for 38.4% of the user base, with older adults (over 54) representing a healthy 37.3%, while young adults (18-34) manage a mere 22%. Still looking for more numbers? Then hit up the link below for the complete breakdown, plus a bonus pie chart.
[Via Crave]
[Via Crave]
Okay, I'm 48, and upgraded to a Kindle 2 after selling my original Kindle.
Kids really don't read as much outside of school texts as we used to back in the day. In high school I read at leat 2-3 novels a week, but I was reading at an early age and still love it. My nieces and nephews who can read (my kids are too young yet) don't seem to have the attention span to do more than texting and focus more on playing their Wii's than improving their minds.
That the Kindle is for "old folks with more disposable income" is bullsh*t. Note the previous Wii reference. A Kindle is cheaper than a game console and Guitar Hero. I do admit that I've got an XBox 360 Elite and an older PS/2, and use the Xbox regularly, but it's not my primary form of recreation/relaxation.
I also use the Kindle in my professional life. Instead of carrying a huge pile of reference books, I buy the Kindle version and have them all available. They're available immediately and they're cheaper than physical books, too.
As for the Sony, well, I do indeed find it limiting that the Kindle doesn't read PDF. That's just a bad design decision. One can argue that it would dig into their cost structure, but if that's the case why is there a Kindle reader iPod app now? The Kindle screen and battery life is superior to Sony, BTW, and Whispernet rocks.
As for multi-functional aspects, bleh. I have three Zunes, and iPod, and a Blackberry Curve (I'd have the iPhone if corporate supported e-mail on it). I don't want all my tech rolled into one device. The Kindle plays music, but I'd never use it for that. If I want to get better functionality for a particular task, I replace that device. It gives me more flexibility.
"The Kindle screen and battery life is superior to Sony, BTW"
True for the touchscreen PRS-700. Not true for the PRS-505.
You're the perfect counterexample to your own point, lol. Fact is you need disposable income to get a Kindle, and kids might want to prioritize a PS3/360/Wii over this, especially considering there is an alternative to the Kindle (ie. normal books).
Well duh, that's because only douchebags that have money to throw away to buy this piece of crap can afford it. IE, people over 40
The age distribution of nearly half over 50 is not entirely surprising. I happened to buy the Sony Reader (PRS-700) for my wife, who's 65 and has extreme tunnel vision, because of the variable font size (better than the original Kindle's) and good ergonomics on the buttons, as well as the near-paper contrast improved, not hindered, by incident light. At 55 myself, I've long been reading plays and other Gutenberg texts on Palms (first the Vx, then the T3). All the devices have had MP3 ability, but we never use it: we're readers. (Aside from the symphony tickets, but that's also an over-50 crowd). Now if they can just get the resolution to 400 ppi . . . :-)
I find these statistics very hard to believe... mainly because of the "Top Sellers" in the Kindle bookstore. For the past several months, the top five books have included all four of the "Twilight" books. I, personally, do not know a single over-40 person who has read even a single one of these books. All I can say is that if Kindles are all being bought by over-40-year-olds, they must all be letting their tween daughters and granddaughters do all of the book buying.
FWIW, my Kindle 2 replaced my original Kindle, which replaced my Tablet PC, which replaced my RocketBook.
Wow! My professor fits the highest demographic age on this chart.
^ Who by the way, has a Kindle...
I'm 60 I got the Kindle not because I have spare money but because physical issues have made it increasingly difficult to read hard cover or small print books . There has not yet been a survey on how many Kindle buyers have disabilities / challenges of some kind but I rather suspect that is a good sized percentage. My 22 year old has the Kindle two and it has enabled her to read what she wants for the first time in her life using text to speech. Most of the young folk I've talked to about Kindle are waiting until the text to speech issue is resolved as they would prefer to use a robot reader over reading text themselves
At least it's easy to use. I think I have found the oldest kindle user in the world:
http://www.widwi.com/widwi.php?item=40