US consumers spend almost as much on e-books and paperbacks

Bango stats show an average monthly $15.34 outlay on eBooks, compared with $20.23 on physical ones.

The Bango Omnibus Survey was conducted in January 2011 with 1068 respondents and asked them how much they spend on each product category in a typical month.

Highlight findings were:

* US consumers who spend money on music downloads, spend on average $13.31 monthly, compared with $17.94 on physical CDs
* Men spend on average $13.90 a month on music, while women spend slightly less, $12.50
* In the North East of the US the average monthly spend is $15.19. Those in the Midwest spend on average $13.72 monthly, while those in the South and West of the country spend on average $12.49 and $12.88 monthly respectively.
* Women spend on average $15.80 a month on eBooks, while men spend $14.80
* Of all the entertainment categories in the survey, video games and mobile games show the widest spending gap. The average spend for video games is $36.46 and $12.51 for mobile games. Bango believes this is due to the high price points for non-mobile titles.

“Our survey findings show that the spending habits of US consumers are changing as a result of the adoption of internet-enabled cell phones and smartphone devices,” said Anil Malhotra, SVP Marketing and Alliances at Bango.

“This is why for brands having an integrated offline and mobile strategy is now becoming more essential. To capitalise on these changing spending patterns, thinking of mobile as a separate marketing channel no longer makes sense.”