Quote:
Originally Posted by CommonReader
I don't believe the argument that e-reader markets are saturated already. This may be true in markets like the US and Australia, yet even in Germany - one the biggest book markets globally - the e-book market is still in a rather early stage.
Additionally, there are substantial markets like Latin Amerika that haven't been really developed yet.
Yet e-ink reader are possibly endangered by cheap tablets flooding these markets before e-ink readers have even gained any foothold.
For the saturated markets product innovations are required to attract existing owners of e-book readers to upgrade. Instead we are rather seeing a reduced range of options. All the major readers are quite similar now.
We aren't even seeing 5" and 7" readers any more.
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You might not believe it but the retail companies who are selling them do as they are who are claiming that the market has peaked. For three years they were one of the most popular Christmas presents, then last year they dropped back slightly. The market has not evaporated, it is just the the boom has ended. It will not die unless there is a sudden upsurge in the popularity of printed media coupled with a major reduction in cost - something that is not very likely.
As for cheap tablets, as they are not the same thing I can't see them having any lasting effect on the eReader market. Saying that they do is like saying that people will stop buying electric drills because a range of cheap Chinese power saws has been released. They are both tools and each has its purpose; one cannot replace the other. Cheap tablets might even aid eReader sales when the people who buy them discover that they don't make very good eReaders.
A tremendous number of people who buy tablets load something like a Kindle app onto them and start reading. Many then complain of sore eyes, headaches etc., as even though they can browse on a computer screen all day, when reading for several hours straight, their eyes are effected. Why else would so many
who already own a tablet go out an buy a dedicated eReader? I don't know of anyone, family, friends, or those who I work with, sail with, socialise with who only own one device; they all have both a tablet and an eReader.