Kindle Share of E-book Reading at 55%

At the end of June, Amazon’s Kindle family of reading devices was used to read e-books by 55% of e-book buyers, according to figures compiled by Bowker Market Research.

Amazon’s share was up from 45% in the second quarter of 2010 and 48% in the second period of 2011, and the increase was aided by the release of the Kindle Fire. Since its introduction in late 2011, the Fire’s share of e-book reading has risen quickly and hit 18% in June. Some of its gains came at the expense of other Kindle devices, but the combination of dedicated e-readers and tablets gave Amazon its highest market share ever, topping the 49% the company had in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Through its iPad and iPhone devices, Apple had a 15% share of e-reading in June, up from 13% in June 2011 with the gain coming entirely from iPads as the use of e-book reading on iPhones fell by two percentage points in the year-to-year period. Barnes & Noble’s Nook devices had a 14% share in the second quarter, a figure that has held steady since the fourth quarter of 2011, but was down from a peak of 22% in the third quarter of 2010.

As the use of digital devices has steadily grown, far fewer e-book buyers are using computers to read e-books, with the percentage of e-book readers using computers falling to 6% in June 2012, down from 10% in June 2011.

Source: Bowker Mmarket Research