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Survey: Mobile devices create reading surge in developing nations [Telegraph-Herald (Dubuque, IA)](Telegraph-Herald (Dubuque, IA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) UNESCO is reporting on an unexpected consequence of the smartphone revolution: As hand-held devices become ubiquitous in various corners of the developing world, people with limited access to printed books are reading more thanks to those tiny, portable screens. That's the finding of a UNESCO survey last week of 4,000 people in Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. "UNESCO has learned that people read more when they read on mobile devices, that they enjoy reading more, and that people commonly read books and stories to children from mobile devices," said the report, which was conducted in collaboration with Nokia and Worldreader, a nonprofit that brings digital books to readers around the world. The survey found that 62 percent of respondents are reading more now thanks to mobile devices. One in three said they now read to children from their mobile phones. As one Zimbabwean man told the UNESCO researchers: "We live in a remote area where there are no libraries, and the books I have in my own small library are the ones which I have already read. So this is now giving me a chance to choose from a variety of fiction titles." What's more, smartphones make books cheaper. The survey found the cost of reading a book on a mobile phone in Zimbabwe is about 5 to 6 cents - that's how much an average user pays for 500 MB of data. By contrast, a paperback in that same country might cost $12. Recent data from the United Nations indicate that of the estimated 7 billion people on Earth, more than 6 billion have access to a working cellphone. That's more than the 4.5 billion people who have access to a toilet. (c) 2014 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |