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Around 1.33 million e-readers and 640,000 tablets were given as presents in Great Britain over Christmas

A whopping 92% of the e-readers were Kindles

Around 1.33 million e-readers and 640,000 tablets were given as presents in Great Britain over Christmas
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Post-Christmas research from YouGov's technology and telecoms analysts has revealed that one in 40 adults (including my Mum) in Great Britain merrily ripped open some form of an e-reader on December 25th, 2011.

That's a staggering 1.33 million e-readers.

Amazon should be pretty happy with that figure, considering that 92 per cent of all the e-readers given over the Xmas period as presents were Kindles.

Mirroring the current trend of book purchasing among UK consumers, 61 per cent of said Amazon Kindles were given to women, with adults over the age of 55 "twice as likely as 18-24 year olds to receive one".

"This is finally the year when the late-medieval technology of the printing press was challenged by a 21st century, digital alternative," Marek Vaygelt, head of technology and telecoms consulting at YouGov, said.

A bite of the Apple

Tablets were also very popular over the Christmas period, with YouGov's research suggesting that around 640,000 slates were given as presents.

Unsurprisingly, around 72 per cent of these were Apple's über-popular iPad.

Check out the purdy bar chart below for more details.


Anthony Usher
Anthony Usher
Anthony is a Liverpool, UK-based writer who fell in love with gaming while playing Super Mario World on his SNES back in the early '90s. When he isn't busy grooming his beard, you can find him replaying Resident Evil or Final Fantasy VII for the umpteenth time. Aside from gaming, Anthony likes hiking, MMA, and pretending he’s a Viking.