Reasons for not using e-books

Table I sums up the reasons in the order of frequency that participants gave for not using e-books. Again, the reasons listed in italic are supplied by the survey respondents.

As shown in Table I, “hard to read and browse” tops the list of reasons for not using e-books. Although no eyestrain is reported in one published study (Gibbons, 2001), people generally believe from experience that reading e-books from a screen cannot be as inviting and comfortable as reading printed books. “Need special equipment” is chosen as the second most important reason for staying away from e-books because the different formats of e-books require some kind of equipment even if only a computer. “Additional cost on the user’s side” can be incurred due to the purchasing of the appropriate equipment for accessing and viewing e-books.

Compared with the reasons for using e-books, the survey respondents offered many more reasons why they did not read e-books. A total of five respondents explained that “not enough thought or exposure” was given to e-books, and another three claimed that they “prefer printed books”. The rest variously cite “lack of interest”, “little knowledge”, “need extra effort”, “unable to find e-books”, or “safety concerns like radiation” as reasons for not using e-books. Some of the reasons derive from the intrinsic features of e-books (e.g. “safety concerns like radiation”), others (e.g. “lack of interest”) may result from human beings’ general attitude towards innovations and inventions such as e-books.

Returning to the reasons originally provided in the questionnaire, “not sufficient interesting titles” was checked by four respondents. Indeed, over 75 per cent of all the e-books published by 1999 are romances (Rose, 1999). The subject content distribution of e-books has not changed much in recent years, and particularly after the downturn of the e-book market. The next pre-reason listed in Table I, “no relevant e-book titles available”, is related to the one just discussed. It appears that more relevant and interesting titles need to be published before e-books become widely used by the public. Finally, none of the respondents checked the remaining two reasons given by the present author in the questionnaire. As users they do not normally pay much attention to “format compatibility and interchangeability” and “copyright concerns”.

When the survey respondents were asked to rank three reasons that they think are the most crucial for them not to use e-books, they came up with the responses in Table IV.

“Need special equipment” and “hard to read and browse”, were again identified by the respondents as the most important reasons for them not to use e-books, although they traded rankings. The subsequent four reasons (i.e. “prefer print books”, “not enough thought or exposure”, “little knowledge”, and “lack of interest”) all depend on personal preference and knowledge about e-books, which implies that publishers and other parties involved in the industry could do more to change and influence the viewpoints of potential e-book users. As for the next three reasons in Table IV (i.e. “additional cost on the user’s side”, “not sufficient interesting titles”, and “no relevant e-book titles available”), all indicate the need for improving e-books by reducing equipment cost or publish more appealing titles. The last two reasons show concerns about e-books themselves, and should be dealt with by the e-book industry.