Research firm YouGov has christened Christmas 2011 as ‘Kindle Christmas’, after releasing stats showing that 1.33m eReaders were gifted at Christmas, and that 92 per cent of these were Kindles.
Between 28 December 2011 and 3 January 2012, YouGov quizzed 2,012 adults in the UK what presents they had personally received or treated themselves to over the Christmas period. The YouGov stats indicate that 1 in every 40 adults in Great Britain received an eReader as a Christmas present, either bought for them as a gift, or as a present for themselves.
“This is finally the year when the late-medieval technology of the printing press was challenged by a 21st Century, digital alternative,” says Marek Vaygelt, head of technology and telecoms consulting at YouGov. “Amazon has done a remarkable job of selling the benefits of eReaders, and the upside for the publishing industry is that it appears eReader owners, at least in the early days, buy more eBooks than the printed books they purchased before acquiring an eReader.”
In line with the demographics of book purchasing in the UK, 61 per centof Kindles were received by women, with over-55 year olds twice as likely as 18-24 year olds to receive one. 
Tablet sales were also buoyant at Christmas. YouGov’s figures suggests that over 640,000 tablets were gifted to adults, 72 per cent of which were iPads, with 60 per cent of these being gifted to women.
Non-Apple-branded tablets were relatively more popular with men but even so the gender break was close to being even (women = 47 per cent). Londoners had the greatest likelihood of receiving an iPad but were least likely to have received a Kindle, although other eReader brands were relatively more successful in the capital.
