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Old 05-22-2012, 09:37 PM   #19
scrapking
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Posts: 467
Karma: 1073260
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Victoria, BC
Device: Kobo Vox, Kobo Glo
Quote:
Originally Posted by elemenoP View Post
That's interesting, I guess it's can't be a problem of rights, because Overdrive has already ascertained that the rights to the books it offers in Canada are available in Canada? Seems like it would be easy to roll out internationally (but what do I know?).

eP
I don't really understand why, but Amazon doesn't seem that focused on foreign markets. There are a lot more non-Americans than Americans, but Amazon seems a little fuzzy on that point. No market outside the U.S. has the Kindle Fire yet. No market outside the U.S. has the Kindle Touch 3G. Some markets don't even have the non-3G Touch yet. There are fewer books available on Kindle outside the U.S. There are no libraries supporting Kindle outside the U.S. (at least, none that I'm aware of).

Yes I know it would be hard to offer an Amazon Prime-like service outside the U.S. for the Fire, but that doesn't stop them from releasing the device (Apple originally released the iPod in Canada *without* the iTunes service, and it was a success).

Amazon is fiddling while the Kindle burns, at least in Canada. If I know that Kobo has grown to 46% total e-reader marketshare, and that the Kindle has dropped to 24% (and these are all-time totals, not just the last quarter, or the last year, but all Canadian e-reader owners), then I'm presuming Amazon knows this too? If so, for whatever reason they're not taking much in the way of action that I can see. Their total user base is still growing: when they had 25% marketshare it was 25% of the 4% of Canadians with e-readers at the time, and now they're down to 24% but that's of the 10% of Canadians who now have e-readers. But (based on the numbers in the study, and estimating Canada's current population at about 33 million), in the time that Kindle has grown from about 330K Kindle e-reader owners to about 790K in Canada, Kobo has gone from around 380K to about 1.52 million in this country.

Perhaps they feel the damage is done in Canada, and they're refocusing on preventive measures to make sure no one does this to them again in another market? Or maybe the feel the market strength of Chapters/Indigo in the Canadian market is truly unstoppable? I don't know, but the numbers are definitely interesting. Also interesting to see the drubbing that Sony, the former market leader, is taking here.

One reminder, these are for people who own e-reader devices, not people who use Kobo, Kindle, etc., apps on other devices. That probably does skew the numbers somewhat, but probably only somewhat as both Kobo and Kindle apps are available for almost everything you can shake a memory card at.

Last edited by scrapking; 05-22-2012 at 09:40 PM.
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