The first step of figuring out what mobile-device users use to read ebooks is to figure out what mobile devices are out there. I don’t need to find out what the main models are–they’ll be changing faster than I can keep up, anyway. I need to find out what OSs are most popular.
A note–the more I find out about how strict the volunteer Wikipedia editors are, the more likely I am to trust the site on articles with a lot of public awareness. I think Wikipedia has become a social gathering place of the Upholders of Law, in a philosophical sense.
- Symbian (Nokia)(36.6% worldwide)
- Android (25.5%)
- iOS (16.7%)
- Blackberry OS (14.8%)
- Windows Phone
- Linux (mainly used to develop other OSs)
- webOS (HP/Palm)
- Bada (Samsung) (in development)
- BrewOs (Qualcomm) (an invisible OS hiding under a phone’s proprietary logo, like Sprint Nextel)
Tablet Operating Systems (computer-like tablets and mobile-like tablets, not in a special order):
- Android
- iOS
- Windows
- webOS
- Blackberry TabletOS
- Maemo Linux
- Novell Linux
- SUSE Linux
ARM–architecture OS (mobile-like tablets: iPad, Galaxy Tab, etc.)
- Android
- iOS
- Blackberry Tablet OS
- webOS
I’m going to narrow my focus to the following:
- Symbian
- Android
- iOS
- Blackberry OS
- Windows Phone
- webOS
A starter link to Dear Author on the best mobile reader apps. At first glance, this looks like something I want to come back to.
Personally, I just have Aldiko installed on my relatively ancient HTC Eris, but I don’t use it much, because the battery life on that phone is so poor.
I predict that a pattern that will come up is that US users will use iBook, Kindle apps, Nook apps, and Kobo a lot, regardless of phone. I’m not sure what will show up as a pattern outside the US.