iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Changing Users' Reading Habits as iPad Usage Declines

Since their September launch, Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have produced record-setting revenue and sales for Apple, but looking beyond financials, the handset also is radically changing the reading habits of those who own the large-sized devices, according to news-reading service Pocket.

Pocket recently analyzed 2 million article and video opens and examined the reading behavior of readers both before and after the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. In particular, the study compared how iPhone and iPad usage changed after the recent iPhone launch.


According to the results, customers with an iPhone 5s and an iPad spent an equal amount of time with each device. As users adopted the iPhone 6, however, they spent considerably more time reading on their iPhones than on their iPads, with users choosing their iPhone over the iPad 72 percent of the time.

This trend was even greater among iPhone 6 Plus owners, who grabbed their iPhones 80 percent of the time when they wanted to read. The big screen of the iPhone 6 Plus also increased video watching by 40 percent.

Even before it was announced, analysts expected the larger-screened iPhone 6 and 6 Plus would cannibalize iPad sales, especially for the 7.9-inch iPad mini. Overall, iPad sales are on the decline, dropping as much as 12.7 percent year over year as the tablet market begins to slow.