Quote:
Originally Posted by Shopaholic
The ONLY reason it has such numbers is because that's all they push on people up here...
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Ereader sales seem to be determined wholly by brand recognition and the strength of the retail channel. Amazon does well everywhere because it's already a known quantity in the book business everywhere. In most markets there seems to be room for at least one competitor tied to a large brick and mortar book chain: whether that be Nook in the US or Kobo in Canada, Japan, UK, France, etc.
I suspect the other ereader makers, without revenue from their own ebook stores, will be forced out of the market given how thin to non-existent hardware margins have gotten and how fast the product cycle has become. Amazon and Kobo can afford to come out with a cutting-edge new product every year and sell it at cost because they make it up on book sales: I don't see how even Sony can survive in a market like that (I'm not sure who would buy a PRS-T2 when the much-superior-spec-wide Paperwhite and Glo are the same price). The growth of cheap LCD tablets as book readers just compounds this: Amazon/Kobo/B&N can sell $200 tablets because they hope to make their money on content.