Brits got Kindles for Christmas

Kindle - less than £100

Tablets - average £400 (some exceptions I know)

I wonder if price had anything to do with it?

I bought a few kindles from Tesco for £79 ... Xmas sorted!!!!

Hmm, I wonder

how many people now use the word Kindle as a generic term for e-book reader.

I know my mum told her bowling friends she got a Kindle, despite it being Kobo, we got her the Kobo because it's got more books, and is generally a better reader.

Kindle, Kobo...

we decided on Kobo over Kindle, particularly with the pre-Christmas price drop, and based on various comparison tests. Having tested what went to a relative, I'm quite happy I didn't get one for myself. Yes, it's ok, and probably less locked down than Kindle, and with epub support. But the 4-way navi pad is a pain and being rubber covered you never know if you press right (and you often get it wrong, going "up" instead of "right". Yes, I would prefer a hardware button on the side. Bundled software is crap, and why the f... do I have to register to install it? Yeah, so they can push their s*** back at me, and then probably lose my data to some hack. Fortunately I stumbled upon the obvious software choice that Kobo decided to keep shtum about - Calibre does the job well enough and there are even plug-ins for those, who want to unlock their DRM-chained purchase.

It's all a bit of a f*** with all the formats and conversions (why the f**** can't they read common formats such as rtf?).

And then, there is a matter of handling contents, when I loaded the device with some 300 Mb (not that much, huh?) of the books I had scanned and read, the device would get so sluggish that it was hardly possible to navigate the menus. Sadly, it seems to automatically scan for and "tag" whatever you drop into its memory. And then, the flash every page, or every 4 pages, depending on your settings, this is annoying. Yes, it's the nature of e-ink, but you won't find a word of this "feature" mentioned by any of the e-book reader manufacturers, nosir.

And, on top of everything, you need a source of light to read them, so no more wasted eyesight reading off a lit screen of a "smartphone".

But the price is just about acceptable, considering the (non-removable) battery life and the decent quality of text display. Give them another year or two and they'll drop to 50 quid and become less clunky.

how many of the 2000-odd received actual books?

just asking...

Its all about price and marketing

I would have bought anyone in my family an e reader for xmas, they are cheap enough to do so. There are only a couple of members of immediate family I would have spent £400+ on to buy a tablet.

As for all the Kindle/Kobo/Sony is better debate, it's immaterial. Look back over the years and you will see many examples which illustrate that it doesn't matter which product is technically better, the key to success is marketing. Kindle have nailed it with a product which is good enough (although maybe not the best) and a marketing and distribution chain which can't be beaten.

Do you think my 80 year old grandparents are more concerned about DRM or the ability to buy a book in 1 click from a website they know how to navigate?

Kobo Touch

Got my eldest a Kobo Touch as it was the one recommended by El Reg readers, it is brill. I was hoping he would throw a strop and say he didn't like it, sadly for me he loves it too. I'll have to wait for my birthday and hope the missus takes the heavy hints.

Bookeen Opus

Bought mine from Waterstones £49 - can't go wrong.

I gave one to my Mum and one to my Dad, Mum loves hers Dad's a technological dinosaur and used it for about 5 min then it's sat in the draw next to his bed since then.

Mine got a bust screen (apparently very common) after 14 months and they want 40 quid to replace it because it's outside 12 months warranty. Since I can only read their books on their obviously rubbish hardware they have me over a barrel. Couldn't possibly recommend them to anybody.

"that one in 40 of us received an e-book reader"

How many will be a novelty and end up in the spare room/cupboard by the end of January? Don't get me wrong I have a widescreen Arnova 10" cheapo Andy tab and it's perfect for ebook reading, I just wonder how many people bought them as presents for people without really thinking if the person wants to buy online books or knows how and where to get the free public domain books?

the other few percent

I got the Sony PRS-T1, I've been reading out-of-copyright fot years so format wasn't an issue - compatibility with my local library's ebook was.

Only problem with ereaders is needing a separate light source for reading at night in bed (compared to say reading on the iphone).

I got one too.

I'll probably still buy physical books, usually second hand. But the number of free out of copyright books alone made it worthwhile.

"Kobo Touch is already out. It's not only better than the Kindle Touch, it uses the open EPUB format, rather than the locked down Amazon AMZ."

You totally miss the point - it's about ease of use - this is why Amazon with the Kindle and Apple with the iPad have it so right. Most of the epub books will free on kindle anyway.

Can you get a 3G Kobo you can use worldwide - thought not...

I appreciate people on here are perhaps more technical than most but the reality is *most* people do not want to faff around uploading their own ebooks when there are a stack of free and cheap ones on Amazon. I bought my wife a Kindle - took all of 2 minutes to setup and she can happily get all the books she wants within seconds.

Kobo is not bad but recon the Kindle will win through - it's just an easier experience.

Kodo --> Dodo

"Only problem with ereaders is needing a separate light source for reading at night in bed (compared to say reading on the iPhone)."

Surely a problem they have in common with their paper cousins. People want it every way - a screen that looks like paper and a mega battery life but also backlit so you can use it in bed.

Most people solve the problem with a bedside light or a clip-on LED light (often built into the case) or even a headlamp.

Sat at the side of the pool I've seen plenty of kindles, just one iPad, they were sat under the stairs well away from the sun they paid so much to enjoy. The missus loves hers too.