SURVEY B Kindle's Non-eBook Reading Features, Like Text-to-Speech and Web Browsing, Find Small Pockets Of Users, With No Feature Coming Close To Book Reading In Either Use or Performance

SURVEY B Kindle's Non-eBook Reading Features, Like Text-to-Speech and Web Browsing, Find Small Pockets Of Users, With No Feature Coming Close To Book Reading In Either Use or Performance

By Tom Dulaney, Contributing Reporter

Readers do a lot more than buy and read ebooks on their Kindles. However, no other feature of the dedicated ebook reading tool compares to the book reading function in either usage or performance ratings.

The Kindle's many other features find use and favor with scattered blocks of the 2,275people who responded to the Winter 2011 Kindle Nation Citizen Survey.

Presented here in order of the most-used features first down to the least used last are the Kindle's other abilities and users' ratings of them.

Just over a third of respondents—a fraction under 36%--rated the Kindle for newspaper reading, and 8% say its performance is “superior” while 28% call it “useful, even if flawed.” About 5% were unaware of reading newspapers on their Kindle, and 2% called it a distraction. An impressively large group at 58% say reading newspapers on their Kindle is not important to them.

Though we wish the numbers were higher, about 35% of respondents subscribe to blogs which they read on their Kindles. Their frequency of blog reading: 16% read blogs nearly every day, another 7% read them weekly, and 12% “sometimes.” About 49% rarely read blogs on their Kindles, and 16% weren't aware they could.

How well does the Kindle do in delivering blogs? Some 12% rate it as “superior” as a blog reader, while 20% find it “useful even if flawed” for a total of 32%. That satisfied group is a minority for now, with 57% of survey respondents saying blog reading is not important to them, 5% saying it's a distraction, and 6% unaware of the feature.

Playing word games or using other Kindle apps and utilities occupies about 35% of readers, with 11% saying gaming on the device is “superior” while 24% say it is “useful even if flawed.” But 65% don't play games for these reasons: 6% said “I was not aware of this feature,” 14% find gaming an annoyance or distraction; and 45% say it is just not important to them.

And one of our favorite features—sending personal documents and manuscripts to the Kindle—is used by 26% of all respondents, with 2% doing so daily, 6% weekly and 18% “sometimes.” About 21% said they were unaware of the feature, and 53% said they “rarely use” it.

Their ratings of the document reading feature: 25% find it useful even if flawed, and 9% rate the feature “superior.” About 53% said it was not important to them, 8% were unaware of the feature, and 5% found it a distraction.

The text-to-speech feature of the Kindle is used by a large minority of 25% of respondents, with 2% listening daily, 4% weekly and 19% “sometimes.” Two thirds—66%--say they use text-to-speech rarely.

A sign that text-to-speech might need some sprucing up, users rate performance this way: 8% call it “superior” and 29% term it “useful if flawed.” About 52% say text-to-speech is not important to them. Only 5% reported they were unaware of text-to-speech. (Note: percentage differences between the two questions' results vary, depending on various factors such as respondents' understanding of the questions.)

As a dedicated ebook reader, the Kindle gets significant use from owners checking email and browsing the web. In a question about usage, the survey combined email checking and web browsing. About 25% overall use the features, with 17% doing so “sometimes,” another 5% weekly, and 3% daily. And 56% said they rarely check email with their Kindles, while 19% were unaware that they could.

But that's usage for email and web browsing. What about performance?

A second question broke out the Kindle's two features: email and web browsing. For email, only 1% rate the Kindle “superior,” while 23% say it is “useful if flawed.” But 47% say email on the Kindle is not important to them; 18% call it an annoying distraction, and 11% were unaware of the feature.

As a web browser, only 2% rate the Kindle as “superior” as a web browser, and 28% call it “useful, if flawed.” About 42% say net surfing on the Kindle is not important to them, and 18% call it an annoying distraction while 9% were unaware of the feature.

The survey combined two sound features to ask respondents how often they used their Kindles to listen to audiobooks and/or music. Some 12% hear tunes or “spoken” books on their Kindles, half the pace of text-to speech. About 1% listen daily, 3% listen weekly and 8 percent listen “sometimes.” About 64% say they rarely do either, and 24% were unaware they could do so.