The Death of E-Readers Is All Your Fault

[Apache]

I prefer Cannolis for breakfast. I am serious.
Apache

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Shushan

okay! We have bacon and hotcakes WITH maple syrup. All that's lacking is an egg or two. Where'd that guilty chicken go?

These guys will make you eggs without the chicken:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feat...actory_of_Life

Well, sorta...

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

Not at all. While they perform quite different functions, both are single-function devices that people have little need to upgrade and tend to replace only when the item no longer works. There's not a whole lot you can do to an e-reader that makes people feel they simply must have the new model.

In contrast, devices such as smartphones and tablets people are much more likely to upgrade. These devices do become obsolete fairly quickly, while dedicated e-readers do not.

My main point was that the initial growth in e-reader sales was people buying their first e-reader. It would be a mistake to expect that same rate of sales to continue. Once the market becomes saturated, the number of first-time buyers becomes small, and the remainder of the market is people replacing their devices, and people aren't that highly motivated to replace their dedicated e-reader with a new dedicated e-reader. The decrease in sales doesn't predict the end of the e-reader, only the end of the initial stage of rapid growth in e-reader sales.

It's simply a very different market from the tablet market. With a tablet you can say "Sure, you like Angry Birds, but if you want to play Angrier Birds, you need to upgrade", and people will. The new tablet offers something substantially different than the previous model. Perhaps they don't need Angrier Birds, but it's a feature that persuades people to upgrade. With dedicated e-readers, however, it just reads books, so it's much harder to add features to entice people to upgrade.

It's a perception thing, pushed because the market.

ereaders are not selling like before not because there are no more innovations that can be made but because people actually prefer tablets. Also, eink technology has not progressed fast enough as probably tablets and LCD has.

3 years ago, actually maybe 1, we had no small tablets at all. Or the ones we had, were clunky, heavy and slow. That changed. Now people have more choices and the ability to use a small tablet as an ereader as well. If you read sporadically, would you buy a small tablet or a eink device?

With enough technology and R&D, there are tons of changes you can apply on an ereader: color, more battery life, lighter, ability to read several formats, faster refresh, better PDF features, you name it. But it's cheaper and more cost. effective using a tablet for that.

It's not because the market is saturated. If that was the case , people wouldn't be buying tablets. It's because the preference has shifted to tablets, at least for now.

[ucfgrad93]

The price advantage of ereaders has declined as well. With the introduction of the Kindle Fire and Nook Color/Tablet the price difference between tablets and ereaders was reduced significantly.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

The price advantage of ereaders has declined as well. With the introduction of the Kindle Fire and Nook Color/Tablet the price difference between tablets and ereaders was reduced significantly.

As has been said before, though, the market will naturally split into those who regard reading as one merely one activity on a multi-function device, and the "hard-core" reader who wants a specialised device dedicated to the task. That's not a bad thing - there's room for both in the market. Naturally the majority will go for a tablet; there are very few people who read more than half a dozen books in a year.

[jbcohen]

To some extent you are right campo, however I believe that most electronic customers are less driven by the technology but rather driven by the media perception of the technology and how fashionable it is to own such a piece of technology. Look at your own choice of the Ipad Mini as a tablet, did you do a careful analysis of the technology when you decided to buy the mini. I have decided to stay away from the ipads and the new mini for the simple reason that apple products tend to be all about proprietary and in my way of thinking proprietary is bad. While I do acknowledge that is some aspects the ipad is not completely proprietary and qualifies as semi-proprietary (one can add apps for Amazon and B&N and get books from both stores not just apple) apple has a tendency to make their products proprietary and I do not want to get stuck with a proprietary anything.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by jocampo

ereaders are not selling like before not because there are no more innovations that can be made but because people actually prefer tablets. Also, eink technology has not progressed fast enough as probably tablets and LCD has.

And because the enhancements that people want from ereaders aren't being explored, so people who'd be happier with better ereaders are opting for tablets because at least those have *some* new features.

Things ereaders don't have:

• In-device management of categories/groups/tags
• Limited search ("search only my scifi books")
• Good zoom for images; good table display (allowing zoom & scroll)
• Bookmarking that connects with coded bookmarks/toc
• Bookmarks-with-notes, so you can tag "quote this in the report" vs "find supporting details" vs "reread later."
• Navigation that works well across 1000+ ebooks
• Accurate battery meters (...maybe some devices have this?)
• Accurate page counts (some devices have this for some filetypes)
• Support for editable formats--doc/rtf/html (again, some devices...)
• In-devices editable metadata for non-DRM'd ebooks (fix title & author so they alphabetize correctly)
• Ability to tag 2-4 ebooks to swap between easily; ability to tag 2-4 chapters to swap between easily
• Clear indication of filetypes; manuals/instructions that clearly indicate the features & limitations of each
• Better PDF support

... I can probably come up with more. Commercial ereader software development has stagnated, which has prevented the devices from growing into the business and academic markets. Tablets and netbooks aren't generally any better at those things than ereaders, but at least they also play games and watch videos.

Plenty of college students would LOVE a dedicated ereader that allowed 30 hours of reading on a battery charge and stored all their books... setting aside the fact that textbook publishers are wary of the digital market, the current set of ereaders don't support strong academic use. Bouncing between titles is troublesome; bookmarking is, at best, quirky; no device's instructions clearly describe how it can best be used for academic study & research.

The market's slowing because casual fiction readers mostly have a device; there's no reason to get a new one every year or two because the reading features haven't improved. Displays aren't notably more customizable; sorting/searching titles isn't faster or easier; bookmarks & annotations aren't more robust. No wonder sales are slowing.

[QuantumIguana]

Yes, you can make improvements to e-readers, but these improvements are nowhere near as large an incentive to upgrade as are the improvements in tablets. A little extra battery life or a little bit lighter is nice, but it's not a major incentive to upgrade. Some devices become obsolete more quickly than others.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by jocampo

It's not because the market is saturated. If that was the case , people wouldn't be buying tablets. It's because the preference has shifted to tablets, at least for now.

No. The market for e-readers is not the same as the market for tablets..anymore than the market for computers is the same as the market for tablets. The relevant market question is to identify who is buying a tablet *instead of* an e-reader. There are a very large number of tablet buyers who would have never bought an e-reader, and don't read on their tablets.

There are also people like me who own both a tablet and an e-reader, but only read on the e-reader.

And then there are people who have bought a tablet to read on.

The market for tablets is, potentially, the same as the market for computers - 90% of the population, if not more. The market for e-readers is 20-40% of the population - people who read more than a handful of books a year. It's that market - the reader market - that may be getting saturated.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

The price advantage of ereaders has declined as well. With the introduction of the Kindle Fire and Nook Color/Tablet the price difference between tablets and ereaders was reduced significantly.

True!

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

To some extent you are right campo, however I believe that most electronic customers are less driven by the technology but rather driven by the media perception of the technology and how fashionable it is to own such a piece of technology. Look at your own choice of the Ipad Mini as a tablet, did you do a careful analysis of the technology when you decided to buy the mini. I have decided to stay away from the ipads and the new mini for the simple reason that apple products tend to be all about proprietary and in my way of thinking proprietary is bad. While I do acknowledge that is some aspects the ipad is not completely proprietary and qualifies as semi-proprietary (one can add apps for Amazon and B&N and get books from both stores not just apple) apple has a tendency to make their products proprietary and I do not want to get stuck with a proprietary anything.

Yes, I did extensive research before getting the mini. And sorry to say I strongly disagree in qualify the ipad a s a proprietary device. Maybe their power connectors or hardware, but not its reading capabilities or reading apps.

I use the mini because it allows me to read PDFs books via GoodReader. Nothing in the market allows me to do that efficiently and trust me, I've tried most Android tablets too.

The mini is , at this moment, the fastest and more efficient tablet at that size. Yes, the resolution it's not the best ... yes, it's expensive .... but it's aspect ratio, at least to me, it's ideal for my PDFs, plus the battery it's outstanding and has 4G. There is nothing like that right now, nothing. Similar Android devices may be less expensive but too narrow and without 4G, so does not work well for me.

The iPad 3 was awesome but can be too heavy for long reading sessions.

I also use Kindle for iOs on my iPad mini, and I also don't see why that can be considered as proprietary. Most books I read there, I read them on my Kindle PW too and are DRM free or from O'Reilly, which I previously uploaded to Amazon via email.

Now, you're right, some people believe owning Apple products are fashionable or cool, but that's not my case. I'm smarter than that.

I buy products based on their functionality or the features they can provide to me.

Not an Fanboy, Amazon fan, or Android geek. I get what works better for me . ;-)

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Apache

I prefer Cannolis for breakfast. I am serious.
Apache

So you fill them at home? I hope the crust didn't spend all night getting soggy

We let the Italian market bakery fill them while we wait, and then eat 'em within a few hours while still crisp

[Apache]

My wife is second generation Italian. Fresh is the only way to go.
Apache

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Apache

My wife is second generation Italian.

My culinary anxiety is completely relieved

[cghipp]

I asked for a Sony Reader for Christmas in 2011, and this year I gave my husband and my daughter e-readers (Kobo Glo and Mini). I don't enjoy reading on an LCD screen, BUT I do find myself wishing I had a tablet for certain kinds of books (craft patterns/instructions, recipes, and the like). However, I doubt I will indulge myself because I know myself too well. The reason I got a dedicated e-reader in the first place (other than the ergonomics of it) was so that I couldn't goof off on yet another platform (other than work laptop, personal laptop and smartphone). I spend too much time on the internet as it is!