EReader big four

[jbcohen]

A pal of mine was talking the other day and he mentioned what he considers to be the "EReader Big Four", the four major ebook readers:

Kindle
Kobo
Pocket Book; and
Onyx

In that order, he did not include the ipad in the list becuase it is as he puts it "Not strictly an ereader but a tablet." If he were to include the tablets he would call them the big five and place them in order as:

Kindle
Ipad
Kobo
Pocketbook
Onyx

In terms of the major ebook stores he said he would call them the "Big three Stores":

Amazon
Apple
Kobo

I thought that I would put this out for a bit of debate.

[ApK]

Interesting to see B&N absent all around. Whodathunk the Kobo store would be Amazon's biggest peer?

When you bring non-dedicated devices into the mix, I think these lists get uselessly arbitrary and subjective. I mean, do more people read on iPads than on, say Samsung's tablets?

[jbcohen]

My pal would say that Amazon's bigest competition for the books is apple not Kobo. Although it is interesting to see Kobo as the biggest competition to amazon. That is true about the tablets.

[eschwartz]

I have never thought of iBooks as serious competition for Amazon or Kobo or really, even B&N...

[shalym]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I have never thought of iBooks as serious competition for Amazon or Kobo or really, even B&N...

Me neither. I know many many people that have iPads and iPhones, and none of them buy books from iBooks. If they read on their iThing at all, they generally have the Kindle app installed and buy books from Amazon.

Shari

[haydnfan]

ebook stores:

Kindle
Kobo
Apple
Nook

Eink readers:
Kindle
Kobo
Nook

[bminata]

I think only a real Apple fanatic would buy books from iBookstore. Why lock yourself into iDevices when the competitors offers much wider option for less price and better selection?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

ebook stores:

Kindle
Kobo
Apple
Nook

I'd say replace Apple with Google (which could flip flop with B&N) would be more accurate. Of course it's a complete WAG (just going off reading various things), but I don't know why anyone would lock in to iBooks when it only works on such a small number of devices. I suppose you do have those folks who buy a book, read it, and don't care what happens to it after that and Apple would be fine for that.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I'd say replace Apple with Google (which could flip flop with B&N) would be more accurate. Of course it's a complete WAG (just going off reading various things), but I don't know why anyone would lock in to iBooks when it only works on such a small number of devices. I suppose you do have those folks who buy a book, read it, and don't care what happens to it after that and Apple would be fine for that.

As has been commented on quite a bit around here, I think we who know, care, and do something about the potential for DRM-related lockout, are in the minority of ebook readers.

I believe that the greatest number of folks have an app or device integrated with a bookstore, happily use that ecosystem and happily never venture outside it.

Since Apple device users are especially loyal as a group, I'd guess they are probably as happily satisfied in sticking with iBooks as a non-enthusiast Kindle user is in sticking with Amazon.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by ApK

Since Apple device users are especially loyal as a group, I'd guess they are probably as happily satisfied in sticking with iBooks as a non-enthusiast Kindle user is in sticking with Amazon.

It's certainly possible, all I can go on is personal experience. That tells me that all of the "Apple people" I know (which is quite a few, most hard core) buy from either Amazon, B&N or Kobo and use their iOS apps since it guarantees them some type of future access outside of iPad/Phone/Pod or Mac OS "just in case".

[adamsolympia]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I'd say replace Apple with Google (which could flip flop with B&N) would be more accurate. Of course it's a complete WAG (just going off reading various things), but I don't know why anyone would lock in to iBooks when it only works on such a small number of devices. I suppose you do have those folks who buy a book, read it, and don't care what happens to it after that and Apple would be fine for that.

That comment is a bit silly re: "don't know why anyone would lock in to iBooks when it only works on such a small number of devices."

There are over 700 million iOS devices out in the wild. That number is probably closer to a BILLION now since that figure is well over a year old. Since when, pray tell, is a BILLION a small number of devices?
All of the dedicated (eink) e-readers COMBINED haven't reached that number. Of course that's counting iPhones, which most people don't use iBooks to read on those (tho some do, which will only increase when more people own the iphone 6+ 5.5 inch) - Still, if we're just looking at ipads, Apple has sold over 200 million. (They sold 26 million in just the first quarter of 2014 (not to mention 50 million iphones in Q1) ... That's a LOT of potential ibooks customers. People who don't mind or even prefer reading on tablets, will likely have no problem sticking to their trusted apple ecosystem for books.

I personally prefer my Nook simple touch for epubs and iPad for PDFs.

Here's some more data of interest:
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2014...er-in-the-u-s/

Looks like Apple might be close to ousting B&N's second place position behind Amazon in book sales. Kinda hard to imagine how they could do that, with such a "small number of devices" ;-)

[shalym]

Originally Posted by adamsolympia

That comment is a bit silly re: "don't know why anyone would lock in to iBooks when it only works on such a small number of devices."

There are over 700 million iOS devices out in the wild. That number is probably closer to a BILLION now since that figure is well over a year old. Since when, pray tell, is a BILLION a small number of devices?
All of the dedicated e-readers COMBINED haven't reached that number. Of course that's counting iPhones, which most people don't use iBooks to read on those (tho some do, which will only increase when more people own the iphone 6 plus 5.5 inch) - Still, if we're just looking at ipads, Apple has sold over 200 million. (They sold 26 million in just the first quarter of 2014 (not to mention 50 million iphones in Q1) ... That's a LOT of potential ibooks customers. People who don't mind or even prefer reading on tablets, will likely have no problem sticking to their trusted apple ecosystem for books.

I personally prefer my Nook simple touch for epubs and iPad for PDFs.

Here's some more data of interest:
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2014...er-in-the-u-s/

Looks like Apple might be close to ousting B&N's second place position behind Amazon in books sales. Kinda hard to imagine how they could do that, with such a "small number of devices" ;-)

I think "small number of devices" referred to the fact that iBooks are restricted to iOS devices, whereas books from Amazon, Kobo, B&N, and Google can be read on pretty much any device you choose.

Shari

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by adamsolympia

That comment is a bit silly re: "don't know why anyone would lock in to iBooks when it only works on such a small number of devices."

There are over 700 million iOS devices out in the wild. That number is probably closer to a BILLION now since that figure is well over a year old. Since when, pray tell, is a BILLION a small number of devices?
All of the dedicated (eink) e-readers COMBINED haven't reached that number. Of course that's counting iPhones, which most people don't use iBooks to read on those (tho some do, which will only increase when more people own the iphone 6+ 5.5 inch) - Still, if we're just looking at ipads, Apple has sold over 200 million. (They sold 26 million in just the first quarter of 2014 (not to mention 50 million iphones in Q1) ... That's a LOT of potential ibooks customers. People who don't mind or even prefer reading on tablets, will likely have no problem sticking to their trusted apple ecosystem for books.

I personally prefer my Nook simple touch for epubs and iPad for PDFs.

Here's some more data of interest:
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2014...er-in-the-u-s/

Looks like Apple might be close to ousting B&N's second place position behind Amazon in book sales. Kinda hard to imagine how they could do that, with such a "small number of devices" ;-)

You should consider comparing iDevices to the total number of ereader-capable devices. Not just E-ink devices. And the number of iOS devices is irrelevant except in comparison to the number of combined iOS/Android/Blackberry/WinPhone/dedicated e-ink devices, so what does it matter if Apple has sold a billion devices? It is still a small number.

Originally Posted by shalym

I think "small number of devices" referred to the fact that iBooks are restricted to iOS devices, whereas books from Amazon, Kobo, B&N, and Google can be read on pretty much any device you choose.

Shari

And most especially the actual competition to iOS, which is Android. Not dedicated ereaders, which compete only amongst each other.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

And most especially the actual competition to iOS, which is Android. Not dedicated ereaders, which compete only amongst each other.

Not just dedicated ereaders. We ARE including them here. In fact, the non-dedicated readers were only mentioned as an afterthought, if you check the OP.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by ApK

Not just dedicated ereaders. We ARE including them here. In fact, the non-dedicated readers were only mentioned as an afterthought, if you check the OP.

The discussion has moved on since the OP.

I will ignore this post, as you can answer your contradiction by rereading the post I replied to. (Hint: It was also a response to the first post I replied to.)