Recent reports laid by a recent poll stated that reading ebooks is slower when compared to a printed book. Nielsen Norman Group the research firm, took response from 24 participants who served as the sample size for the research. The study asked them to read a short story written by Ernest Hemingway on the PC, Apple iPad, Kindle 2 ebook reader and also on a simple paper notebook.

The average recorded time for reading was noted as 17 minutes 20 seconds. Through this research it was reported that reading a book on an iPad was 6.2 per cent slower when compared to reading it from the printed book, while reading on Kindle 2 was recorded to be 10.7 per cent slower.

When asked to rate them out of seven it came out that three mediums received similar ratings with Kindle 2, iPad and the printed book scoring 5.7, 5.8 and 5.6 respectively. PC was the lowest scorer of the lot with 3.6.