E Ink net sales plunged 46% in Q2 2013, is still upbeat

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

Another thing to remember is that Q2 is the quarter right before Kobo and Amazon tend to release new readers. So of course people are not going to be buying readers in this quarter right before a new one is released. Apple has the same problem with the iPhone.

I would expect sales of Eink screens at least to be higher before new launches. They must have the screens to build the readers. Early Q2 seems about right for higher sales as companies producing ereaders would want the latest product they can get and still make production deadlines. Buy the screens too soon and a competitor might be able to make a better ereader. Buy them too late, and you will not get to market in time to compete with this years crop.

Helen

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Eink readers are always going to have a limited market because the customer has to do enough reading to justify the cost of one and those customers need to justify an ereader over a general purpose device (or even an LCD based ereader). As long as E Ink recognizes this when planning, the company (thus the displays) will continue to be available and all will be well for us.

I'm sure you are right for the majority.

I spend at least an hour a day reading and maybe 4-5 in winter when I have more free time. Wouldn't take much of an improvement for me to buy a new ereader. Better screen, smoother page transitions, or more functional basic software. And of course there are possible advances and features that I have never dreamed of.

My first reader cost $375 + tax and it was on sale. Never regretted a penny. Now you can buy a reasonable big name reader for as little as $40. I've spent more on a meal out or a bottle of good wine.

In four years I have bought 6 ereaders, two as gifts. Out of the four I bought for myself, I bought two within the last 6 months.

I think that the novelty market may have fallen off and some have decided that they like tablets better for reading, but heavier readers (I mean people who read) are starting to notice the difference between the reader they have and the new ones coming out. I don't care for the built in light, but it sure has sold a lot of readers to people who already owned one or three, and even possessed a light. A backlight I was comfortable with would have me buying another. Or put together all or most of the features I like software wise in one package and I would buy it.

When the perfect ebook reader comes out, then I might stop buying

Helen

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I'm sure you are right for the majority.

I was trying to be right for everyone!

That said, I think that we're pretty much saying the same thing albeit from different angles.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I'm sure you are right for the majority.

I spend at least an hour a day reading and maybe 4-5 in winter when I have more free time. Wouldn't take much of an improvement for me to buy a new ereader. Better screen, smoother page transitions, or more functional basic software. And of course there are possible advances and features that I have never dreamed of.

My first reader cost $375 + tax and it was on sale. Never regretted a penny. Now you can buy a reasonable big name reader for as little as $40. I've spent more on a meal out or a bottle of good wine.

In four years I have bought 6 ereaders, two as gifts. Out of the four I bought for myself, I bought two within the last 6 months.

I think that the novelty market may have fallen off and some have decided that they like tablets better for reading, but heavier readers (I mean people who read) are starting to notice the difference between the reader they have and the new ones coming out. I don't care for the built in light, but it sure has sold a lot of readers to people who already owned one or three, and even possessed a light. A backlight I was comfortable with would have me buying another. Or put together all or most of the features I like software wise in one package and I would buy it.

When the perfect ebook reader comes out, then I might stop buying

Helen

New technology always starts out very expensive and then drops in price. I can remember when a VCR was right round $1000.00 and then it slowly went down til the average person could afford one. Of course then they brought out the DVD player which started out expensive and now is very cheaply priced. E-readers are just following the same trend as far as pricing I think. E-Ink does have advantages over lcd. You can read out of doors for one thing. When I do that I try to be in some shade but even in the shade if you try to read an LCD screen all you see is a greyed out screen. A dedicated reader of course can't have too many extras added or it ceases to be a dedicated reader.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by crich70

New technology always starts out very expensive and then drops in price. I can remember when a VCR was right round $1000.00 and then it slowly went down til the average person could afford one. Of course then they brought out the DVD player which started out expensive and now is very cheaply priced. E-readers are just following the same trend as far as pricing I think. E-Ink does have advantages over lcd. You can read out of doors for one thing. When I do that I try to be in some shade but even in the shade if you try to read an LCD screen all you see is a greyed out screen. A dedicated reader of course can't have too many extras added or it ceases to be a dedicated reader.

Haha. My first VCR was $1400

Price means quite a bit to me, but I read so much, I'd pay several hundred all over again for something radically better. I'm not bitching about what I have, but we all know how much the hardware has improved, and IMO the software is just a wee bit flakier on some of the newer models than the 2010 models.
Not that I have tried them all by any means.

I don't want my reader to be a tablet, I don't even use most of the current extras. I'm fine with current display technology and battery life, but I expect these to improve one of these days.

I know from my own history that I will fork out fairly big bucks for something better. 40 years ago I had a thermal dot matrix printer which I paid a handsome sum for, then a dot matrix, then a color inkjet and now the wireless color laser for less than 1/4 of what I paid for any of the others

Perhaps the dedicated reader market is limited a bit, but how many people would own color inkjets if they were still over $1000 or many of the tech toys we take for granted. The cell phone market should be saturated by now, but lots of people paying big bucks for fairly small improvements.

I'd pay more for a whiter display, and more reliable software. I'd even pay more than the going market price for a reader with a narrower bezel that looked less like a picture frame.

Helen

[Lbooker]

It looks like the Sony 13" reader may arrive next month, like other novelties. Great !

[Sregener]

Still waiting for that HD eInk iPhone! That would get them a lot of sales.

I'm on the fence on a Paperwhite. I like my Kindle 4NT a lot, but would appreciate the light and higher resolution. However, with rumors that a next-generation device is around the corner, I'm sitting and waiting a little longer.

[cms]

Is there already a thread for this device in the mobileread forum? Can't wait for iit to be released. Finally an e-reader that makes sense.