Smartphones remain the most popular device to read e-books in the US, driven largely by iPhones, iPads and iPod touch and Android handsets. The use of Apple and Android devices to read e-books has grown by 25 per cent over the last quarter, while BlackBerry devices have experienced a 9 per cent drop in usage.

The figures come from ebook community Wattpad’s quarterly Wattpad Metrics Report, which examines e-reading habits and consumption, and offers predictions for the e-book market. They are based on 1bn minutes that readers and writers spent online on Wattpad during the second quarter.

Other key findings include:

• The iPad has been rapidly adopted for e-book consumption since its launch in April. In Q2, the iPad accounted for 5 per cent of e-book consumption among Apple’s core mobile products – iPod/iPhone/iPad.
• The growth in smartphone usage continues to come from N. America and Europe, whereas Java devices continue account for the majority of growth in Asia.
• 38 per cent of the total number of e-books consumed on Wattpad are read by English-literate readers.
• The US continues to dominate English e-book consumption, accounting for 70 per cent of total readership, followed by the UK (14 per cent), Australia (8 per cent) and Canada (7 per cent).

“We are continuously impressed with the variety of devices readers use to consume ebooks,” says Ivan Yuen, CTO and co-founder of Wattpad. “Six to 12 months ago, people only thought about the major e-reader offerings and the iPhone, but in the last quarter weve seen incredible growth in the usage of iPads and Android tablets, as well as netbooks and other mobile devices. I expect this trend to continue. E-books that are only available on one device or in one format will be missing out on many fast-growing segments of the market.”
You can access the complete report here.